SriLankan Airlines achieves strong on time performance

SriLankan Airlines has consistently achieved very high levels of punctuality - averaging around 87 per cent on time performance - for every month this year, around its route network.

Says the airline's Manager PIC, Recruitment and Emergency Response Planning Sampath Perera, "After 1999, with a new fleet of Airbus aircraft and a concerted effort by all operational departments and down-line stations, punctuality levels have nearly doubled."

He says apart from the new fleet of Airbus aircraft which has fewer maintenance problems, a determined effort by management, particularly in all operational areas, to perform a daily scrutiny of each delay and probe its root causes has seen a dramatic increase in punctuality levels.

A Punctuality Improvement Committee (PIC) headed by the Chief Technical Officer and comprising representatives from each operational department like Flight Operations, Engineering, Inflight Services, Catering, Commercial, Security, Cargo and Airport Service meets everyday to review delays that occurred around the airline's route network during the previous 24 hours. The success of the PIC is that from a committee it has become a committed working group.

Perera says the PIC probes each delay to its root cause in order to ensure it does not occur again. "We keep a delay scrutiny open for upto a maximum of three days, till we eliminate the original reason for its occurrence, so that it won't happen again."

For instance, if the reason for delay is stated as 'due to missing transit passenger' the PIC does not merely accept that statement, but investigates further to find out the reasons for the missing passenger.

Each month Perera's team sends out a Delay Analysis Report to all members of the PIC and to senior management. The report contains tabular and graphical representation of delays classified by operational departments, destinations,  aircraft type and so on which clearly shows where fault lies.

"We work towards recommending policy and procedural changes to eliminate delays. We have also managed to get external agencies to improve their policies or practices which have resulted in better punctuality for the airline," says Perera.

He says the PIC's work is never done. "There always scope for improvement, to give the customer the highest levels of satisfaction."