A dispute between Ports and Civil Aviation Minister Anura Karunathilaka and Deputy Minister Janitha Kodithuwakku over the appointment of an interim chief executive at SriLankan Airlines has escalated into an administrative crisis at the loss-making national carrier, the Daily Mirror reported, citing several sources within the airline.
Those sources said the friction peaked on Monday, when the Minister intervened directly in a formal inquiry convened by his Deputy into the reinstatement of a suspended airline employee. The Minister delayed the inquiry from the morning until the evening before closing the session early, they said, undermining the proceedings. Although the aviation portfolio falls under the Deputy Minister’s purview, the sources said ministerial intervention continues to stall efforts to settle administrative disputes at the carrier.
The interim appointment
The airline’s chairman recently announced plans to appoint an interim CEO from within its own ranks. Two internal executives — the Head of IT and the Head of Commercial — were shortlisted three weeks ago, and Karunathilaka then selected the Head of IT without consulting his Deputy, the sources told the Daily Mirror.
That move stalled after a social media campaign raised allegations of corruption within the airline’s IT department. A formal grievance letter warned of a “serious escalation of mismanagement in the IT division” and said the executive named “has become a serious threat to the future of the Airlines Business.” The Minister has held back the formal appointment for now but remains determined to proceed, according to the report.
The JVP-affiliated union was excluded entirely from Monday’s inquiry and remains frustrated, the Daily Mirror said.
A 16-month vacancy
The dispute plays out against a leadership vacuum that has drawn sustained parliamentary criticism. SriLankan Airlines has had no permanent chief executive for 16 months despite two rounds of interviews producing hundreds of applications.
At a recent Sectoral Oversight Committee hearing, chairman MP S.M. Marikkar called it a “tragic situation” that the airline could find no suitable candidate internally or externally in more than a year and four months. That hearing also examined the carrier’s fleet expansion plan and its US$207 million maintenance bill.
Neither Karunathilaka nor Kodithuwakku had publicly responded to the account at the time of writing. The Daily Mirror’s report rests on unnamed airline sources rather than an on-the-record statement from either office.
Sources: Daily Mirror.
