Sri Lanka's airline posts $525 million annual loss

COLOMBO, May 12 (AFP): Cash-strapped Sri Lanka's national airline announced a staggering $525 million annual loss on Friday.

With nearly 6,000 staff, SriLankan Airlines is the biggest and most expensive of the cash-haemorrhaging state companies that have drained the budget and compounded the worst financial crisis in Sri Lanka's history.

The bankrupt South Asian island's $3.0 billion bailout by the International Monetary Fund requires Colombo "restructure" -- a euphemism for privatise -- the airline along with another 51 loss-making state enterprises.

The carrier lost 163.58 billion rupees ($525 million) in the year to March 2022, it said in a statement -- more than three times its deficit in the previous 12 months, when air travel was hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The airline missed interest payments on a $175 million bond in December, eight months after the government itself defaulted on its sovereign debt after running out of foreign exchange.

Pathirage said he hoped "restructuring" would make SriLankan viable, but did not discuss plans to sell off the carrier.