The Sri Lankan Government has shortlisted potential investors for SriLankan airlines from the initial six companies who expressed interest, according to CEO Richard Nuttall.
The Government is presently in talks with three different entities who are eyeing to buy the state-run airline, he said speaking to ANI.
Nutall explained that the privatisation of Sri Lanka’s flag carrier SriLankan Airlines is a part of the country’s programme with the International Monetary Fund.
One of the steps taken in the efforts to privatise the airline will be to help with the balance sheet, which he said was expected to be completed in a couple of months.
“There are two parts to that. One is, the Government working to help us with our balance sheet and a lot of work has gone on with that we expect that to be finished in the next one or two months,” he said.
On the airline’s search for potential investors, Nuttall said that expressions of interest were completed in April.
“Expressions of Interest were completed in April and there were six candidates. That’s now been whittled down to three. So the Government is now talking to three different entities and we’ll see what happens from there,” he said.
Nutall stated that no Indian company had shown interest in investing in the airline, though one of the consortia reportedly includes some Indian involvement.
The airline hopes to grow its current fleet of 21 to 22 next month, with plans to obtain another three aircraft within the next three months, the CEO said.
The destinations to be covered by the airline would remain the same for the time-being, Nuttall said. However, the frequency of flights to destinations already covered by SriLankan airlines is expected to increase, he said.
“Most of the expansion that we’ll get from that will not be new cities, but it will be increasing frequencies to existing destinations, particularly India and Southeast Asia,” he said. (ANI)
