SriLankan Airlines says cancellation of A350 aircraft was ill suited

Colombo (News1st): Recently, News 1st reported that an Airbus A330-200 aircraft leased by SriLankan Airlines had become a massive debt burden as it is not being made use of. Sri Lankan airlines responded to this through a statement today (January 18). In the statement, SriLankan Airlines said the decision to cancel the order for A350 aircraft in 2016 and the decision to procure A 330 - 200 aircraft as per an agreement reached thereafter, do not go in line with the company's present business plan. On  Monday (14 January) Chairman of the Sri Lanka Nidahas Sevaka Sangamaya at Sri Lankan Airlines revealed to the media that a day before the agreement on the A350 aircraft was terminated, an email was sent out to the email addresses of [email protected], [email protected], and two other e-mail addresses. Janaka Wijepathirathne noted that the emails had informed them that the Prime Minister at the time Ranil Wickremesinghe had taken a decision to cancel this agreement. Wijepathirathne stated that it is quite clear that the prime minister had intervened in the cancellation of this agreement and through his friend Ajith Dias had done so without any official approval. According to SriLankan Airlines, the previous management had leased the A330 aircraft to another airline, sadly that airline had defaulted on its payments. It adds the present administration is taking the necessary steps to recover the losses from the respective company to which the aircraft was leased to. Sri Lankan adds that the possibilities of leasing the aircraft to transit airlines or another airliner are being considered. If the media that exposes such massive fraud and corruption that destroys the money of hard-working Sri Lankans, is labelled as "Black Media" shouldn't the perpetrators of these crimes be branded "Rogue Elephants"?