SriLankan Airlines cancels Airbus deal with USD98 mln penalty

Oct 04, 2016 (LBO) - An order for four A350 aircraft that SriLankan Airlines was to take delivery of in 2016-2017 would be cancelled, the Finance Minister said Tuesday.

"The loss of purchasing these four A350 air buses would have been 900 million rupees per month and if we did not reject this it would have come to our accounts," Ravi Karunanayake, Minister of Finance said. "So we decided that we will pay the penalty and not take the air crafts." However the minister added that SriLankan Airlines has re-negotiated the penalty for cancellation to 98 million dollars from 154 million dollars. "We accepted this deal so the the re-structuring of the airline and the merging of Mihin Lanka could go ahead as planned.

" "What the country needs are buses and not air buses." Seven A330 aircraft and eight A350s in total were ordered during the previous regime in a 2.6 billion dollar deal. Of the A330s one aircraft has already been vested in Pakistan International Airlines with two more to follow.