The board of directors of the third airline operator in Sri Lanka, Fly Lankan Asia Limited, has unanimously chosen Dr. Arosha Fernando, a world-renowned scholar and a leading business magnate, who is also versatile in regulatory matters and business development, for the post of Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
of the company.
Once certified, Fly Lankan Asia will be Sri Lanka’s third scheduled international operator after national carrier SriLankan Airlines and FitsAir, which is primarily an international cargo airline that also has some domestic passenger services. The only other domestic scheduled operator is Cinnamon Air.
Fly Lankan Asia is seeking to fly internationally to Jeddah and Madina in Saudi Arabia, Medan, Jakarta, Semarang, Madina, Surabaya and Makassar in Indonesia and Johor Bahru and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, as a regional operator.
Dr. Fernando, who has six university degrees from Australia – two bachelor’s degrees, three master’s degrees and a doctorate, the only person to have such kind of highest number of academic qualifications as a Sri Lankan, has assumed duties as the new CEO of Fly Lankan Asia Limited, recently.
This includes Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA) and Bachelor of Business (B. Bus.) in Marketing as well as Bachelor of Business (B. Bus.) in Human Resources Management from Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia and Master of Business Administration (MBA) major in International Business Management, Master of Project Management (MPM) and Master of Engineering major in Telecommunications Engineering (M. Eng.) from RMIT University, in Melbourne,Australia.
Dr. Fernando has 28 years of senior management experience in the local and international business field and currently Chairman, MD and CEO of five other companies in Sri Lanka. He is also a senior film producer and produced 17 films, five tele-dramas and two stage plays, a total of 24 productions to his credit during the past eight years.
Further, Dr. Fernando has involved and contributes towards many social service activities and programmes, be it at the workplace and or the village and in recognition he had been appointed as a Justice of Peace (all-island) by the Justice Ministry and also received National Honours titled Deshabandhu, Deshamanya and Sri Rohana Jana Ranjana by the Government of Sri Lanka.
Dr. Fernando was Chairman of Verazo Holdings Limited, Deputy Chairman of World Capital Centre, Group Director of MTD Walkers PLC, Board Member and Working Director of ITN TV Channel and Lakhanda Radio Channel, Senior Consultant at Ceylon Fisheries Harbour Corporation and Senior Consultant at the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka, to name few of the senior positions held.
Dr. Fernando, who has pioneered in bringing foreign direct investment to Sri Lanka as well as specialised in the media, telecommunications and apparel sectors, is expected to play a leading role in the Sri Lanka’s aviation sector time to come.
