SriLankan Airlines reaches record milestones in FY18

SriLankan Airlines, the national carrier of Sri Lanka, has concluded another year of strategic growth in its recently ended financial year, which was underscored by several historic milestones.

During the financial year ended 31 March, the airline carried over 5.8 million passengers – the highest ever since the airline’s inception in 1979. This represented a 31% growth over the previous year, in what was the airline’s largest expansion undertaken during any year since launch.

Buoyed by the addition of three next generation A321neo aircraft to its fleet during the year, becoming the type’s first operator in Asia, SriLankan’s fleet grew to 26 aircraft – also the highest in the history of the airline. This enabled the airline to produce the highest seat capacity in its history, reaching 18,488 million of seat kilometres and operating over 300 flights per week.

In an even more remarkable achievement – despite the significant capacity induction – SriLankan was also able to improve its Passenger Load Factor, at 82.7% the highest ever since the inception of the airline.

During the year, SriLankan added the new destinations of Melbourne in Australia and Coimbatore, Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam in India, to its route network. 

The expansion was undertaken without any increase in the airline’s workforce – resulting in the airline’s Employee Productivity to reach the highest ever since its inception. Its employee productivity, as measured by a standard industry metric, reached 2.63 ASK million per annum per employee.

Commenting on the achievements, SriLankan Airlines Chief Executive Officer Captain Suren Ratwatte said: “The 2017/18 financial year has been one of remarkable growth and record milestones for SriLankan as we continued to steer our course despite the headwinds of rising fuel prices, challenging market conditions and unfavourable currency movements. Notwithstanding a large capacity increase, which generally results in reduced of load factors, we recorded the greatest passenger load factor and achieved the highest turnover in the company’s history. Our focus during the year has been to capitalise on our strengths, while delivering a high-quality product and service to our customers. We will continue to build on these strengths as we drive ourselves towards new goals this financial year.”

SriLankan is currently on the verge of implementing the second phase of its restructuring plan, catering to the challenging new environment of a higher global fuel price and intense competition. It intends to undertake a range of new initiatives aimed at improving its revenues and optimising costs in order to reach profitable performance in the near future.