Sri Lanka’s government has approved a further handout to SriLankan Airlines (UL, Colombo International), this time for USD50 million to enable it to continue its services without interruption, the country’s Daily News reported on February 18.
The Cabinet of Ministers granted the “credit guarantee” following approval by the state-owned People’s Bank and Bank of Ceylon and by the Ministry of Industrial Export and Investment Promotion, said Prasanna Ranatunga, minister of industrial export and investment promotion and of tourism and aviation.
Eight credit guarantees and two treasury credit guarantees have been issued to SriLankan Airlines in the past. It has also managed to obtain USD205.38 million in US dollar loans and LKR27.6 billion Sri Lankan rupees (USD152 million) in rupee loans, according to the Daily News.
The ongoing Covid-19 coronavirus epidemic underlines Sri Lanka’s need to maintain a national airline, the minister stressed.
SriLankan said in a statement dated February 5 that it had cut frequencies to the three Chinese cities it operates to, citing lower demand, flying to Guangzhou 3x weekly instead of the previous 7x, to Beijing Capital 2x weekly instead of 4x, and to Shanghai Pudong also 2x weekly instead of 4x.
