Sri Lankan airline's emergency response plan pays dividends

March 29 (LBO) – SriLankan airlines says its emergency procedures allowed it and Sri Lanka's main international airport to swing back into action within hours of a temporary closure earlier this week.

"I doubt that any other major airport in the world could have recovered as quickly as we did," Peter Hill, CEO of SriLankan said in a statement.

"I am very proud of the manner in which our staff coped with the challenges of the situation, first assisting in the safe evacuation of passengers, and then working smoothly and efficiently to resume normal operations.”

The airline said within three hours of the incident, its staff was ready to reopen all services at the airport for both inbound and outbound flights.

SriLankan is the sole ground handler at BIA and provides services which include handling of passengers, baggage and cargo, in-flight catering for all airlines.

The airline said its Emergency Response Plan was activated, within minutes of the incidend with key members of the management and staff working to ensure the safety of passengers, assisting stranded passengers, helping relatives searching for passengers, and resuming normal services at the airport and throughout the airline’s global route network.

“SriLankan Airlines staff undergo continuous training in facing just such a crisis, and we were able to minimize the level of disruption to our customers,” Yohan Pathirana, manager of SriLankan's airport service delivery, said.

Srilankan says all passengers were successfully evacuated from the Terminal Building during the Airport closure without any incident.

SriLankan Airlines staff had supported a Singapore Airlines flight, which had been on ground at the time of the attack, to make a delayed departure for Singapore as early as 3.30am.

“Not a single SriLankan Airlines flight was cancelled," Captain Milinda Ratnayake, Senior Manager Flight Operations, said.

"Aircraft that were in the air at the time of the incident were diverted to regional airports, and brought in to Colombo as soon as BIA opened. Departing flights were initially delayed for several hours, but we were getting back on schedule within 24 hours.”

The first SriLankan flight in to BIA, UL192 from New Delhi, landed at 5:53 a.m.

The first departing SriLankan flight, UL155 to Goa, was deliberately held back to wait for transit passengers arriving on delayed incoming flights, and took off at 7:30 a.m.

SriLankan had also launched its new service to Jeddah as scheduled, the airline’s 51st global destination, with the flight taking off from BIA at 3:45 p.m. on March 27.

The airline quoted Sri Lanka's tourism minister Milinda Moragoda, as saying: “I would like to acknowledge the important contribution of SriLankan Airlines, which supported the nation once again during its time of need.”

The airline’s Passenger Assistance Centre at the Airport Garden Hotel, and Crisis Communications Centre at the World Trade Centre, which are activated only during emergencies, were fully operational by 2:30 a.m.

Emergency telephone lines allowed passengers and others to establish the correct situation. Information was supplied to all local radio stations, giving regular updates, and also through e-mail and faxes to other media worldwide regarding the status of BIA and SriLankan flights.

“It was indeed impressive to witness a group of Sri Lankans working together for their country, carrying out countless tasks in the background with amazing attention to detail, according to a set plan," says Hill. Sri Lankan News

"In addition, calculated decisions were taken by the management of the airline on resuming normal operations, in consultation with other authorities, reopening the airport, bringing back our flights at the earliest opportunity so that passengers would not be stranded overseas.”