SriLankan clarifies social media reports on special flights

SriLankan Airlines has clarified the details of social media posts that are currently circulating, implying that the national carrier has charged an excessive sum of money from passengers who were on a specially-operated flight to repatriate stranded Sri Lankan students from India.

In a statement, SriLankan Airlines stated that the above-mentioned flight was “specifically operated as a special flight, based on the request made by the students and their parents to the Government of Sri Lanka.”

Accordingly, the Government, together with other government departments, Airport and Aviation Services Ltd., armed forces, government medical agencies and the Foreign Ministry, had arranged for and enabled the repatriation flight with SriLankan Airlines by obtaining necessary international governmental approvals as airports and airline operations have closed in most countries, the statement read.

“The flight was a ferry flight out of Sri Lanka and departed India with an overall cabin factor of 50% or less,” the national carrier says.

When operating to destinations that the airline does not currently fly to as in the case of Kathmandu, and Amritsar the operating cost such as landing/parking/ground handling etc are incurred at prevailing rates in the absence of service contracts with suppliers, SriLankan Airlines explained. “As such these costs are relatively higher.”

These main operating costs are beyond the control of the airline and are incurred despite lower cabin factors, the statement continued.

“Further taking into consideration that most airports have shut down SriLankan Airlines had to carry fuel from Colombo for the return journey, catering services and organize standby ground services for any unforeseen emergency.”

SriLankan says that the special repatriation flight was also operated under special COVID-19 airline operational procedures thus being subjected to a further increase in expenses that included the use of Personal Protective Equipment for staff, deep cleaning, fogging and de-misting procedures to disinfect aircraft and more.

“When the total cost is divided among lesser number of passengers, the per-passenger cost is substantially higher,” the Airline pointed out.

“At a time, when the global airline industry is at a shutdown, SriLankan Airlines rose to the occasion where staff of the airline including operating pilots, cabin crew, ground handling staff, planners and many others behind the scenes were risking the safety of their lives and families to operate a humanitarian flight that did not have a commercial objective,” the national carrier said.

It is in this respect the airline had to quote fares that were purely based on costs for the special repatriation flight unlike general market fares that are based on market dynamics, the statement added.