Once Sri Lanka reopens its borders for travellers, tourism is expected to be one of the primary economic drivers and the National Carrier, SriLankan Airlines, is expected to play a pivotal role in the country’s economic recovery. Fully owned and backed by the Government of Sri Lanka, the Airline was forced to suspend scheduled services in early April as Sri Lanka took a tough stand on battling COVID-19. Now, with Sri Lanka’s health and safety situation under control, the Airline is ready to take to the skies and connect Sri Lanka with the world again.
Discussing the reopening of Sri Lanka’s borders, the Chairman of SriLankan Airlines, Ashok Pathirage said, “Despite the challenges we face, we are looking forward to the reopening. Even though scheduled services were suspended, as the National Carrier, we have been working to provide relief flights to repatriate stranded Sri Lankans and other nationals. We have also been providing much needed cargo facilities to support our export industries and bring down essential emergency equipment and supplies to deal with the pandemic. We have been working around the clock to adapt our operations to meet health & safety guidelines and the challenging requirements of the ‘new normal’.”
Ashok Pathirage is one of Sri Lanka’s foremost business leaders and is the founder of the Softlogic Group, a leading Sri Lankan conglomerate. In addition to his role as Chairman of SriLankan Airlines, Mr. Pathirage oversees more than 50 market-leading companies with interests in retail, telecommunications, healthcare, finance, IT, leisure and autos. He was invited by the Government of Sri Lanka to assume control of SriLankan Airlines in late 2019, with a view to transforming it into a more profitable and progressive enterprise.
Health and Safety
SriLankan Airlines has implemented extensive protocols for health and safety onboard its aircraft and across its terminal facilities in line with directives and guidelines issued by local and global aviation and health & safety organizations such as the ICAO, IATA, EASA, WHO and Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Health and Department of Civil Aviation. These measures include physical distancing, facemasks and other protective gear for passengers and workers, routine disinfection of aircraft and terminal environments, health screening, contact-tracing, passenger health declarations and testing.
Elaborating on the health and safety measures taken by SriLankan Airlines, Mr. Pathirage explained, “We have taken every reasonable precaution to minimize the risk of transmission of disease, thus ensuring the safety of our passengers and crew. Each aircraft is subjected to cleaning and disinfection before and after each flight. We have even removed all reading material from seat-back pockets and provided a mechanism for online pre-ordering of in-flight duty-free items to minimize physical contact.”
Mr. Pathirage went on further to say, “Each aircraft is also equipped with regularly serviced and replaced, industry-standard hospital-grade HEPA (High-Efficiency Particulate Air) filters, certified to remove 99.97% of all viruses from circulating air within the passenger cabin. Therefore, we are happy to say that our passengers can travel with us and enjoy our signature Sri Lankan hospitality without fear. In fact, my own business and personal travel arrangements will see me flying on SriLankan’s scheduled services once operations recommence.”
During the new routine cleaning processes, all contact surfaces in the passenger cabin are sprayed & wiped down with approved effective disinfectants in accordance with WHO standards, including windows, seatbelts, tray tables, armrests, handsets, inflight entertainment displays, lavatories and other surfaces.
All passenger consumables & amenities such as headsets, headrest covers, pillow covers, blankets and other items are replaced with fresh, disinfected items. All air and ground crewmembers are regularly tested and have been strictly instructed to stay at home if feeling unwell, and extra caution is being taken with regard to food preparation and handling.
Special protocols are also in place to deal with aircraft that are known to have been exposed to COVID-19, which include extensive and rigorous disinfection and cleaning using approved effective disinfectants and an extensive wipe down of the entire interior of the aircraft.