The government is determined to turn SriLankan Airlines into a profitable national carrier despite its mounting losses, Cabinet Spokesperson Minister Nalinda Jayatissa said on Tuesday, with the money required to be set out in the 2027 Budget.
Jayatissa said some progress had already been made on the airline’s financial position, and that the government hoped to make it financially sustainable as tourist arrivals continue to rise, the Daily Mirror reported.
He said the government was committed to bringing the carrier to a position where it could operate without incurring losses, and that the financial allocation required for the initiative is expected to be outlined in the 2027 Budget, which Parliament is due to vote on 14 December.
What the statement does and does not commit to
The filing records an objective and a funding vehicle, not a plan. There is no target date for breakeven, no figure for the allocation, and no description of the restructuring that would produce the turnaround — whether fleet changes, route rationalisation, debt treatment, a strategic partner or renewed privatisation.
The linkage Jayatissa draws to tourism is real but partial: arrivals passed 1.9 million for the year in the first week of November, though the year is still running about 1.7 per cent behind 2025. A national carrier’s profitability turns on yield, load factor, fuel cost and debt service as much as on visitor numbers, and the filing addresses none of them.
The scale of the problem
SriLankan has been loss-making for most of the past decade and is among the heaviest recurring claims on the Treasury. The airline marked 47 years of operation in September and has been through repeated restructuring attempts, including a divestiture process that did not conclude. This year it has also pulled back from parts of its Gulf network, suspending Riyadh and Dammam services from 24 October.
Reporting elsewhere puts the carrier’s loss before tax at Rs. 35.6 billion for the first three months of the 2026/27 financial year, against a net loss of about Rs. 12 billion in the same period a year earlier. This desk could not confirm that figure from a verified newsroom whose publication date it was able to establish, and it is recorded here as unverified context rather than as a reported result.
Not reported
The filing does not say what the “progress” already made consists of, give any current loss or debt figure, name a breakeven target, or say whether the 2027 allocation is a recapitalisation, a subsidy or working capital. It does not state whether privatisation or a strategic investor remains under consideration, and records no response from the airline’s management or board.