SriLankan Airlines (UL, Colombo International) chairman Ajith Dias says fellow state-owned carrier, Mihin Lanka (Colombo International), will not be merged into SriLankan Airlines as previously expected. Speaking to Lanka Business Online, Dias said while the loss-making LCC is being managed alongside SriLankan Airlines, it would remain a separate entity.
“We are running Mihin as a separate company and managing it. They are paying for that (management) as it is not free,” he said. “We are not trying to merge the two companies because one is different to the other. Also some of the routes that Sri Lankan are flying have been given to Mihin Lanka.”
In February this year, Sri Lanka's newly appointed Minister of Finance, Ravi Karunanayake, said consolidating the two carriers into one company would help cut losses while increasing productivity.
Mihin, a budget carrier operating flights to the Indian Sub-continent, the Middle East, and South East Asia, has racked up LKR15 billion (USD113.37 million) in losses since 2010 while its full-service counterpart, SriLankan, lost LKR100 billion (USD755.8 million) over the same period.
