• Another year, another committee; same old SriLankan story

How many committees does it take to fix a broken airline? Sri Lanka is now in its 17th year of trying to answer that question and still hasn’t found a convincing answer. With every change of government comes a new approach, a fresh set of promises, and, like clockwork, another committee tasked with ‘restructuring’ SriLankan Airlines. The one constant? The airline’s mounting losses and deepening dependence on taxpayer funds.

In May, history repeated itself yet again. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, just months into office, convened a high-powered meeting with the Board of Directors of SriLankan Airlines and representatives of all affiliated trade unions. 

The outcome: a new committee under the Presidential Secretariat, charged with investigating corruption and mismanagement at the National Carrier. The decision came after the new Government halted its predecessor’s stalled plans to privatise the airline, opting instead to keep it under State control, despite it continuing to haemorrhage public money.

“We are ready to make all necessary sacrifices to rebuild this institution,” President Dissanayake told those gathered at the Presidential Secretariat on 20 May. “But the internal capacity to do so must come from within.”

The President’s remarks echoed what countless other leaders have said over the years. But in the airline’s case, ambition has rarely translated into action. Since the departure of Emirates from the management of SriLankan Airlines in 2008, the once-profitable carrier has descended into a saga of political appointments, failed business plans, botched procurements, and loss after loss. 

For years, each new report, commission, and restructuring proposal has promised change. Yet, the airline remains stubbornly grounded in the same dysfunction.

Now, with Rs. 20 billion allocated from the public purse to keep the airline afloat this year alone, and fresh promises of a turnaround strategy on the table, the question looms larger than ever. Will this time be any different?

Before answering that, it’s worth looking back at the long trail of committees that have come and gone, each claiming to be the one to finally get SriLankan Airlines off the ground.

2008 & 2010: Business plans that gathered dust

In the wake of Emirates exiting SriLankan’s management in 2008, the airline began its long descent into losses. Chief Financial Officer S.A. Chandrasekara was tasked with formulating two business plans in 2008 and 2010, aimed at reorienting the airline through subsidiary formation and share sales rather than Treasury bailouts. 

Despite detailed planning and a subsequent $ 510 million expansion proposal by consultancy Via Capital in 2011, neither plan was implemented.

2015: Weliamuna Report on corruption

In February 2015, then Minister Arjuna Ranatunga appointed a four-member committee headed by J.C. Weliamuna to probe alleged corruption during the Rajapaksa era. 

The report, handed over to then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in April 2015, unearthed alarming findings, including non-competitive CEO appointments, violations of procurement procedures, political donations through the catering arm, and fuel reimbursements to ministers. It recommended criminal investigations. 

By 2015, the airline had racked up Rs. 128 billion in accumulated losses and Rs. 76 billion worth of debt.

2017: Cabinet-level restructuring and Nyras Report

In October 2017, President Maithripala Sirisena appointed two high-level committees – a Cabinet committee and a State officials committee – to evaluate the airline’s future, from equity partnerships to outright closure. 

The following month, UK-based Nyras Consulting was brought in to chart a restructuring plan focused on right-sizing the fleet, debt restructuring, tax breaks, and cost rationalisation. The report was submitted in December 2017. Nothing was implemented.

2018: Presidential Commission of Inquiry 

In February 2018, yet another investigative body was formed. This Presidential Commission of Inquiry (PCoI) was tasked with probing fraud and corruption at SriLankan Airlines, SriLankan Catering, and Mihin Lanka between 2006 and 2018. 

The commission, led by retired Supreme Court Justice Anil Goonaratne, uncovered procurement guideline violations, such as flight simulators purchased at double the market rate, and tallied losses of Rs. 143 billion for SriLankan and Rs. 17 billion for Mihin Lanka. Still, no prosecutions or reforms followed.

2019: 10-member committee under President Sirisena

In May 2019, yet another committee was formed, this time a 10-member team led by State Minister Eran Wickramaratne. Tasked with drafting a restructuring roadmap, the committee included officials from the Central Bank, Attorney General’s Department, audit services, and SriLankan’s own past leadership. The report was due in two weeks. No public action or results ever emerged from this effort either.

2025: The latest chapter

On 20 May, President Dissanayake established a new committee under the Presidential Secretariat to investigate allegations of corruption and mismanagement at SriLankan Airlines. The announcement followed a four-hour meeting with the airline’s Board of Directors and union representatives.

The President emphasised the need for internal capacity-building, fiscal accountability, and workforce commitment to revive the airline without privatisation. He acknowledged a Rs. 20 billion budget allocation and welcomed news that April 2025 revenue had exceeded targets. A new transformation proposal was also tabled by the board, with unions pledging support.

But with nearly two decades of plans, probes, and pledges behind it, the question remains: will this latest committee finally take flight, or join the long list of grounded reform efforts?

Another bailout, same burden

In the 2025 Budget, the Government allocated Rs. 20 billion to settle legacy debt at SriLankan Airlines, nearly seven times the Rs. 3 billion set aside to modernise the nation’s public transport system. The bailout, split evenly between capital and interest payments, was presented as a final push to relieve the airline of its debt load and enable operational profitability. 

Despite generating operating profits in recent years, SriLankan Airlines remains weighed down by past liabilities and management controversies. A senior official at SriLankan confirmed that the airline had presented a five-year strategic plan, but obtaining specifics had proven difficult. 

Meanwhile, the company reported a pre-tax loss of Rs. 1.96 billion for the seven months ending October 2024, reversing a Rs. 4.13 billion profit from the previous year. The Finance Ministry attributes this to a nearly 15% drop in net traffic revenue.

The situation is further complicated by external debt entanglements. A $ 175 million sovereign-guaranteed bond issued in 2019 is now in default, with half the bondholders hiring US-based legal counsel to negotiate a settlement. Ratings agencies continue to flag Sri Lanka’s creditworthiness, in part due to unresolved airline liabilities.

Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning Harshana Suriyapperuma revealed that SriLankan had also been paying $ 900,000 monthly for three grounded aircraft acquired under questionable lease agreements. While the airline claimed the grounding was pandemic-related, critics called it a symbol of deeper mismanagement.

Political interference and alleged corruption have also resurfaced. In Parliament, Suriyapperuma stated that commissions had been sought during aircraft procurements and leases had been signed at inflated prices. 

Similar claims were substantiated by the 2018 Presidential Commission of Inquiry, which uncovered widespread procurement violations and poor financial decisions, including a $ 115 million penalty for cancelling Airbus A350 orders.

Ultimately, SriLankan shouldn’t be a burden  

Speaking to The Sunday Morning, Verité Research Lead Economist Raj Prabu Rajakulendran expressed concern over the lack of action following previous investigations. “I always say that in Sri Lanka, it’s not that we don’t have ideas; we just lack implementation,” he said, calling the situation a “classic problem”. 

He pointed out that previous committee reports had already documented viable solutions based on the insights of experienced professionals. “The problems of SriLankan Airlines have been solved and recommendations have been written by people who have years of experience in this. It’s done and dusted,” he stated.

While acknowledging that not every recommendation might receive universal agreement, Rajakulendran stated that the accumulated recommendations were already sufficient to act on. In his view, appointing new committees with every change in administration seemed more about political preferences than policy need. 

“When each new government or different political party comes in, they want to have another committee just to simply understand or maybe just to drive a certain recommendation that they want. However, simply creating committees is not going to solve the problem,” he observed.

He also highlighted the need for greater transparency. “Not all of these reports are even public,” he pointed out. “One thing I would say is to get all of these reports out there. Every committee report needs to be made public. There’s nothing confidential about them. Even if they are confidential, that reason has to be stated.”

To bring the public into the fold, he suggested starting with the publication of all past committee findings. “This is a taxpayer-draining resource. Therefore, this information and what has been recommended needs to be a public conversation. The first step might be just to put this recommendation report out and see what people have to say about it before we even go ahead and implement it,” he said.

As for the path forward, Rajakulendran stressed that Sri Lanka must first decide whether it wants to retain the airline at all. “If we are to maintain an airline, it needs to not be making losses. It needs to go through an extensive restructuring process, which some of these committee reports have said, and be a profit-making enterprise,” he said. “The Government shouldn’t be in a position where it has State-Owned Enterprises that are loss-making.”

“I wouldn’t say privatise or do not privatise; that’s the elected Government’s choice to make. But if they choose to [retain the airline], they should consider extensive restructuring to ensure that these entities are profit-making. They shouldn’t be a burden on the State.”

Has SriLankan had enough of committees? 

An official at SriLankan Airlines, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the airline viewed the latest committee with cautious pragmatism. 

“If there is a committee appointed by the President, it has to be taken seriously,” the official said. “Regardless of how many committees there have been, we are obligated to cooperate and engage in the process.”

When asked whether the airline expected anything different this time, the official replied diplomatically: “It depends on what mandate this committee carries and whether it leads to actual implementation. That has always been the missing link.”

Government stance 

In a previous conversation, Deputy Minister of Ports and Civil Aviation Janitha Ruwan Kodithuwakku stated that the Government had taken on the debt burden of SriLankan Airlines in a bid to set the loss-making National Carrier on a path to financial recovery.

He said that the airline could no longer operate effectively under the weight of its liabilities, prompting State intervention. 

“We are hoping to turn things around within the next four to five years. This Government is starting from zero and formulating a plan for everything,” he said. “In SriLankan’s case, the debt was extreme, which is why the Government decided to take responsibility for it.”

Kodithuwakku highlighted that deep-rooted structural and managerial issues continued to hamper the airline’s performance. He pointed to politically influenced appointments by past administrations as a key factor behind inefficiencies at the management level. 

However, when The Sunday Morning reached out to him again last week, he said that SriLankan Airlines did not fall under his purview and that Deputy Minister Harshana Suriyapperuma should be the contact point for the latest queries on the National Carrier. 

Multiple attempts made by The Sunday Morning to reach out to Suriyapperuma proved futile. Similarly, all attempts to reach a senior management official at SriLankan Airlines were unsuccessful.