Airline Pilots' Guild of Sri Lanka raise concerns over situation at national carrier

COLOMBO (News 1st); The Airline Pilots' Guild of Sri Lanka claimed that there have been serious and often critical issues which have not been addressed by the management of SriLankan Airlines resulting in the current catastrophic state of affairs.

In a statement, the Airline Pilots' Guild of Sri Lanka issued a clarification over the accusations made on the delay of SriLankan Airlines flights in the recent past.

Minister of Ports, Shipping and Aviation Nimal Siripala de Silva had recently accused the Airline Pilots' Guild of Sri Lanka of refusing to operate a flight after a first officer on duty had fallen ill.

Responding to the allegations, the Pilots had issued the statement outlining the issues that led to the incident. 

In a statement, the Airline Pilots' Guild of Sri Lanka said that they have been left in the lurch as a result of a spate of decisions by the Management of SriLankan Airlines compelling them to be overworked.

SriLankan Airlines requires at least 330 Pilots to function in full capacity for the designated flights. However, the statement pointed out that over 70 Pilots have resigned from the Airline since 2022 with many more resignations pending due to the issues faced by the Pilots. This has resulted in a complete depletion of Pilots.

The severity of the issue was witnessed in the recent incident where there were no Pilots on standby to be assigned to a flight which eventually departed more than 12 hours later than scheduled time of departure.

The Airline Pilots' Guild of Sri Lanka added that the cadre of Pilots which should ideally be at 330 now only has approximately 250 as a result of the shortsighted, arbitrary and callous decisions of the management.

The statement also pointed out that SriLankan Airlines pays one of the lowest wages well below industry standards to Pilots, and prior to June 2023 the Pilots were paid their salaries at an arbitrary US Dollar which was nearly 40% below the rate of the Central Bank. This issue took years of union  intervention and discussions to resolve.

The statament added that today, despite all other departments in the Airline being given increments and bonuses, the Pilots are yet to receive a substantial part of their contractually due salary package which was in place before the coronavirus outbreak, despite predictions by SriLankan Airlines CEO promising a profit of 50 million USD this year.

They said that the recent issues regarding flights stem from these actions and/or inactions of the management itself to which the management have continuously refused to pay heed to.

The statement added that the body has repeatedly raised these concerns including by way of litigation due to the attitude of the management of the Airline.

The Airline Pilots' Guild of Sri Lanka urged that these matters be brought to the notice and the attention of the general public and all stakeholders of the Airline in order to facilitate the issues raised being addressed and resolved.