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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hashan dis" data-source="post: 21157266" data-attributes="member: 124785">[YOUTUBE]gXEZunLL1eA[/YOUTUBE]Peace Air, owned and managed by Sri Lankan business magnate Gamini  Wettasinghe, has made a bid worth Euro 5 billion (or US$ 5.5 billion) to  acquire the national carrier, SriLankan Airlines and Mihin."We are  the best bid till now. We have achieved a mark of 65 points while  Singapore Airport Terminal has got 68 points. But, our SWIFT  (Confirmation of funds) have come in now and our marks will rise to 76  which is the best," two Peace Air Directors told Ceylon Today late  Friday night.The highlight of the acquisition is that the SriLankan brand name and  the livery will remain and there will be no retrenchment of staff, but  it will be expanded.Under the proposed route expansion programme,  there will be five destinations each in Africa, China, Europe and  Australia, ten in India and 6 in East Asia, they said, adding that all  the destinations which were cancelled earlier, such as Rome, Zurich and  Frankfurt, would be reinstated.One of the key hallmarks of the deal is that Peace Air has also  signed an Agreement with Lufthansa Consulting, the consulting arm of the  German national carrier, which has over 450 aircraft, to do the due  diligence test.They said that they will be beginning with the  cancellation of all the lease agreements for the existing 21 aircraft  and returning them while bringing in 25 new aircraft which is also a  strategy to increase the capacity and the expansion.There are also  ambitious plans to fly to five Australian destinations – Canberra,  Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth, and another, which will be decided later  and also five destinations in Africa. These details would be announced  later, they said. He assured that no employee would be retrenched. "We  will be beginning by paying all 6,878 employees a bonus ofRs 100,000 and we will be recruiting more to fit in with the expansions," they said.They also stressed that they would be getting ready to cancel the  lease agreements of the 21 existing aircraft, for which the national  carrier was paying excessively, adding that there were four aircraft  which were as old as 17 years. They also decried that the lease for a  one-year-old aircraft was the same as the 17-year-old aircraft.There  was also a meeting with the SriLankan Airlines Chairman Ajit Dias and  the Management on Thursday, where most of these were spelt out.We will be going for the best bid, whether it be Airbus or Boeing,  they added. They also lamented that they had heard that the Government  was negotiating with Qatar Airways as opposed to Peace Air which was  100% local. "Why should we end up as a regional carrier for Qatar  Airways, when we have always fared as an international carrier which has  a much larger network, they queried indignantly.The most attractive part of the deal is that Peace Air has undertaken  to bear the debts of both SriLankan, which stands at US$ 953 million  and Mihin US$ 69 million.Peace Air has also expressed interest in  getting a 70% share, 90% equity stake of Mihin and 100% equity stake in  SriLankan Airlines Catering Services Ltd.</blockquote>

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