aTP- Arab tourism portal News
SriLankan Airlines reports performance boost
SriLankan Airlines is proud to report a significant improvement in its overall performance over the last nine months of 2018, as compared to the same period the previous year.
Notable improvements were recorded in deployment of capacity, passenger and cargo revenue, market yield and unit cost. The year 2018 was a challenging year for the airline due to the adverse impact of rising global fuel prices, rapid depreciation of local and regional currencies and political instability. However the airline showed a great resilience by executing effective strategies to curb the impact of such adverse external environmental factors.
During this period, SriLankan’s net traffic revenue from core airline operations increased to $746 million with a year-on-year growth of 8 percent. Overall seat capacity or available seat kilometres (ASKs) was improved by 6.5 percent through effective deployment of the aircraft fleet to profitable markets by way of frequency optimisation and utilising right aircraft types.
Effective and timely management of aircraft deployment and flight frequencies on the basis of market dynamics allowed the airline to optimise revenue amidst the increased competitive climate. Flight frequencies to markets such as London, Melbourne, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha and Delhi were increased to meet the seasonal demand and it proved to be an effective strategy as the performance of these routes improved significantly.
SriLankan reaffirmed its commitment to growth of tourism by continuing with daily operations to Melbourne, Australia that saw Australia rising to the 5th highest tourist generator of 2018 ahead of some of the traditional tourist markets. In fact, Australian tourist arrivals grew by 36 percent in first 12 months since launch of SriLankan’s direct flight to Melbourne.
SriLankan Airlines’ online direct sales channel www.srilankan.com achieved a significant milestone by recording an overall penetration of 14 percent of the total network passenger revenue. This reflected the airline’s consistent investment and commitment in optimising nontraditional direct sales channels to drive the revenue up at lower incremental cost. The airline expects to double the online direct sales contribution in two years.
Increase in passenger revenue would have been much higher if not for the depreciation of key revenue generating currencies which amounted to $9 million during the period under review.
Although a marginal reduction in total number of passengers carried (0.3 percent) was reported for the nine-month period, overall seat factor (network-wide seat occupation) remained at 82 percent of the capacity deployed. The overall passenger yield which is measured as yield per revenue passenger kilometre improved by nearly 1.6 percent from previous year.
Vipula Gunatilleka, CEO, said that the year 2019 will be the year of consolidation for the airline and the management initiatives undertaken during the 2nd half of 2018 are expected to show positive results.
– Qatar Triune
