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View all search resultsAirline on the block in Sri Lanka reforms
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D
ozens of state-owned Sri Lankan companies employing tens of thousands of people could be restructured or closed as part of an IMF bailout of the bankrupt country, with the country's airline on top of the list for reform.
With nearly 6,000 staff, SriLankan Airlines is the biggest and most expensive of the cash-hemorrhaging, sclerotic companies that have drained the budget and compounded the worst financial crisis in national history.
According to treasury figures, the carrier was losing US$4.50 for every dollar it earned at the start of this year. It has not turned a profit since 2008, when its chief executive was sacked for offending the country's then-leader.
"Even those who have never stepped into a Sri Lankan aircraft are paying to subsidize the airline," government spokesman Manusha Nanayakkara told reporters this month.
"We can't continue like this."
Sri Lanka defaulted on its $51 billion foreign debt in April and is now neck-deep in the arduous process of renegotiating its obligations with creditors.
Its 22 million people suffered through months of food and fuel shortages and at the peak of the crisis a furious mob stormed government buildings and chased Sri Lanka's former president into exile.
