SriLankan Airlines has achieved a record un-audited annual passenger revenue of Rs. 126.9 billion (US Dollars 830.7 million) for its recently ended financial year of 2017/18 – the highest ever in the Company’s 38-year history. The revenue comes on the back of the recent expansion of the airline to include services to several new destinations such as Gan Islands, Hyderabad and Melbourne and additional frequencies to popular cities in its network.
The airline’s cargo division recorded a spectacular performance – achieving a revenue of Rs. 14.7 billion on its own. Both passenger and cargo divisions exceeded their annual target, enabling the SriLankan Airlines Group – bolstered by an even stronger performance at its best performing business unit SriLankan Ground Services – to comfortably exceed the overall annual revenue target.
The overall Group turnover exceeded one Billion US Dollars, making SriLankan one of the handful of companies in Sri Lanka to reach this milestone. It also becomes the highest revenue generating company amongst all Sri Lankan businesses which publicly report their financials.
The year has been one of transformation for SriLankan, in which it inducted four brand new fuel efficient narrow-bodied aircraft to the fleet – in the process becoming the first A321neo aircraft operator in Asia. It has also made significant improvements to on-board service, including offering flat-bed Business Class seats on all wide-bodied aircraft and Wi-Fi services on nearly half of its fleet.
The airline is currently at the verge of implementing the second phase of its restructuring plan, which would see the airline become a profitable and self-sufficient entity within a short period. The restructuring initiatives would see the airline further fine tune its route network and implement a range of cost optimisation initiatives. It intends to report its audited financial results for FY2017/18, which are required to undergo the review of Auditor General of Sri Lanka, before the end of September 2018.