SriLankan targets 16 % revenue growth
Indunil Hewage
National carrier SriLankan Airlines targets a 16 % growth in revenue
terms by doubling the amount of passengers it carries a year by 2015.
SriLankan Airlines carries around 3.5 million passengers annually and
doubling the amount of passengers in the coming years will definitely be
an enormous challenge. However, SriLankan Airlines believes that it can
tweak the yields up and derive revenues as a result of fast growing air
traffic segment, said Kapila Chandrasena, CEO SriLankan Airlines. He
made these observations speaking at the Second International Air
Transport Association (IATA) Global Aviation Human Capital Summit in
Colombo.
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SriLankan Airlines
Chairman Nishantha
Wickramasinghe delivering
the inaugural speech at the
Second IATA Global Aviation
Human Capital Summit
Picture by –Roshan Pitipana |
Chandrasena noted that SriLankan Airlines will break even somewhere
in 2015 under its five year growth strategy plan. SriLankan Airlines is
currently focused on core businesses and it has plans to improve
complementary businesses to be revenue lines for the company. These
measures are expected to give operational efficiencies thereby
generating more revenues for SriLankan Airlines.
“The aviation market itself is a challenge and we are facing
challenges with cost drivers which are something beyond our control.
The airline industry is today going through a fairly testing time.
When the prices of operation are going up, prices of tickets are coming
down. We need to reconcile these things, which I believe is a
challenging task.
SriLankan Airlines has also put a great emphasis on human resources
development activities to overcome various issues faced by the industry.
“Today air travel remains a growth market. Every 15 years, air traffic
has doubled and we will foresee this trend for the next 15 years.”
Chandrasena noted that the world traffic which is recording a 4.8%
growth a year will provide enormous opportunities for SriLankan Airlines
to build a sustainable airline.
We are currently undertaking both modernization and expansion of
fleets and looking at the sectors we need to fly and new traffic
profiles to determine what type of aircraft we need to acquire in the
future. SriLankan Airlines is also in the process of streamlining all
aspects of its operations thereby getting the required efficiencies
particularly in the human skills development segment to supplement the
local aviation market.
SriLankan Airlines Chairman Nishantha Wickramasinghe said that
SriLankan Airlines is set to become the Centre for Excellence in the
region in the aviation industry related training and human resources
development activities.
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