At a recent awards ceremony in Colombo, Sri Lankan Airlines acknowledged the sterling work of its staff at stations in the Middle East, three of which were nominated as the top performers throughout the worldwide network.
While Kuwait took the top slot, first runner up was the UAE team, followed by Saudi Arabia, all of whom were judged on the generation of passenger and cargo revenue as well as the efficiency of ground handling, engineering, operations and finance.
According to UAE country manager Desiree Premachandra, recognition by SriLankan head office management underlined the strides the country staff had made in promoting the airline as a reliable and reputed international carrier.
She said: “The top three performers were all Middle East stations, which really reflects the strides that this region has made for the airline. Aggressive sales and marketing activities, increased frequencies and a regional economic boom are really paying off for SriLankan Airlines in Arabia.
“With more than 100 airlines serving Dubai International Airport alone, we are working in one of the most highly competitive aviation environments in the world, but the profile of SriLankan continues to grow as more and more travellers chose to fly with us – whether on business or leisure, for flights to Colombo or beyond.”
Meanwhile, in other categories, Suranjan de Silva, flight operations manager in Colombo, was highly commended for his efforts in launching the highly successful Air Taxi Service, opening up domestic destinations to visitors for the first time by offering convenient air transfers around Sri Lanka.
SriLankan Airlines was created in April 1998 when Air Lanka, was privatised following the establishment of a strategic partnership with Dubai-based Emirates Airline. The agreement saw Emirates take a 40 per cent shareholding in the company and undertake a 10-year management agreement, during which time SriLankan has been established as southern Asia’s preferred international carrier.
Following its transformation, SriLankan has won a string of international aviation awards including Best Airline in Central Asia from UK’s Skytrax Research for four years in a row, (2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004), underlining its new reputation as a world-class carrier.
In 2003, SriLankan was voted as having the friendliest cabin crew by Skytrax, and also won the award for Best In-flight Entertainment (for a fleet size of 20 or less) at the annual World Airline Entertainment Association’s Avion awards in the USA.
Meanwhile, the airline’s sky taxi service has revolutionised domestic air travel in Sri Lanka, offering transfers between the airport and Colombo and Kandy, Koggala, Bentota, Trincomalee, Anuradhapura and Hingurakgoda – flight times from Bandaranaika International Airport are just 30 minutes to each town except for Trincomalee, which is a 45-minute transfer. The network incorporate most major tourist sites, from the beach resorts on the west coast around Bentota and Galle (Koggala), as well as Polonnaruwa (Hingurakgoda), Anuradhapura, Kandy and Trincomalee.
