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by Ravi Ladduwahetty

The decision of the national carrier- Sri Lankan Airlines to operate Colombo bound flights from Rome and Frankfurt in August in view of the 2002 Winter season will be based on commercial viability, the airline's Chief Executive Officer Peter Hill told a high powered meeting of aviation and tourism personnel at the Defence Ministry auditorium yesterday.

This follows yesterday's meeting chaired by Aviation Minister Tilak Marapana with the Board of Directors of Sri Lankan Airlines at the Defence Ministry regarding this crucial problem of recommencing the flights of the national carrier to these two destinations for the winter season. However, it will be only Frankfurt and Rome. Milan and Berlin have been excluded from this program.

The recommencement of flights aimed at captivating 38,000 tourist arrivals without which the industry would have lost over Rs. 3 billion in foreign exchange. Tourism Minister Gamini Lokuge and Ministry Secretary Dr. P Ramanujam represented the tourism industry at this meeting.

The two factors which will determine the decision of the national carrier to fly to these destinations will be pricing and the demand for seats from these two markets, Hill told the Daily News in an interview last night.

In the event of the commencement of these flights, a return ticket will be priced at US$ 600 which should meet the airline's targets of meeting costs and profitability, he said.

A high powered two member Sri Lankan Airlines team comprising Chief Executive Officer Peter Hill and Head of Commercial G.T.Jeyaseelan will fly to both Rome and Frankfurt next Monday (29) to negotiate with the tour operators in those two cities and also to determine whether there is in fact a shortage of airline seats out of those two destinations.

We will talk to the tour operators about the pricing structure and if they are able to provide us with the number of seats that we have in mind and that too at the right prices, then we will consider resumption of flights to these two destinations, Hill said, adding that there was no firm assurance or guarantee that the SLA flights to these two destinations will be resumed.

Hill also said that the meeting with the Ministers of Civil Aviation and Tourism will be reconvened once the tours of Germany and Italy have been completed so that the tourism and aviation industries would be kept informed of the ground realities prevalent in these two markets, which should be around mid May.

Responding to a question as to whether the airline was equipped with requisite numbers of aircraft in the event of wanting to resuming the flights, Hill said that the airline would need one more additional aircraft.

Whether it will be an Airbus A-340 or A-330, it is too early to say, he said.

The Sri Lankan Airlines CEO also explained to the meeting in detail about the perceptions of the airline in relation to these two routes and stressed that the only possible method of the airline operating on these two routes were based on commercial viability.

Sri Lankan Airlines has agreed to fly to these destinations for the Winter season based on the assumption that these flights will have a minimum of 55 percent occupancy for which the airline will have no problem in overcoming, Tourism Minister Gamini Lokuge told the Daily News last night.

This meeting was strategically important as it had a direct bearing on the potential numbers of arrivals and also regarding the inclusion of Sri Lanka as a tourist destination in the Winter brochures, he said. 

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