Sri Lanka on Friday announced a special committee of experts to conduct a strategic review and restructuring of its loss making almost five-decades old national airline.
SriLankan Airlines, established in 1979, has been going through the process of finding a strategic partner earlier and later, a formal privatisation / divestment process that was started in 2023 was abandoned the next year.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s government – which took charge in November 2024 – said it would focus on internal restructuring and reorganisation of the airline. Government data showed that the accumulated loss recorded in 2024/25 by the airline was over USD 2 billion.
The committee, consisting of senior advisors to the president and top bureaucrats, seeks “to establish a financially sustainable and commercially efficient national carrier, while reducing the long-term fiscal burden on the government,” a release from the President’s Media Division said.
The committee will conduct an independent review and assessment of the SriLankan Airlines’ strategic direction and future course of action, recommend restructuring requirements and possible restructuring model, evaluate specific strategic options and identify the most suitable course of action aligned with the government’s overall objectives, it said.
The committee of experts will provide oversight, guidance and support for the implementation of the selected strategy and execution framework determined by the government, the release added.
The national carrier has been going through the process to find a strategic partner. But no investor came forward between 2015-19. During 2020-22, in the face of the island nation’s economic crisis, Srilankan Airlines’ restructuring was linked to the economic reforms alongside other loss-making state-owned enterprises (SOEs).
In 2023, a formal privatisation / divestment process with an International Finance Corporation adviser was launched but as no acceptable investor came forward, the bidding process was abandoned in July 2024.
With the current government taking over in late 2024, it announced that the previous government’s attempt to privatise the airline among other SOEs would not be pursued.
