The main suspect in the Airbus deal, former Air Lanka CEO Kapila Chandrasena, remanded for a week

Mr. Kapila Chandrasena, the former CEO of SriLankan Airlines, was arrested today (12) by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption. He, the main suspect in the controversial Airbus deal, was summoned before the Bribery Commission this morning to record a statement, and the arrest was made after nearly seven hours of questioning.

Fort Magistrate's Court today (12) afternoon ordered that Kapila Chandrasena, the arrested former CEO of SriLankan Airlines, be remanded until the 19th.

He has been accused of receiving a bribe of two million US dollars during the process of purchasing Airbus aircraft for SriLankan Airlines. Details regarding this massive financial fraud were first revealed by 'The Sunday Times' newspaper in 2020, and on November 25, 2025, Minister of Ports and Civil Aviation, Anura Karunatilake, stated in Parliament that the total loss incurred by the Sri Lankan government due to this corrupt deal is approximately 400 million US dollars. The Minister also pointed out that the 115 million dollar penalty paid to Airbus to cancel the deal is included in this loss. Additionally, the government at the time had paid approximately 50 million dollars more than the market value to purchase two aircraft.

In 2012 and 2013, agreements were reached between Sri Lanka and the French Airbus company to purchase six A330 aircraft and four A350 aircraft, and to acquire four more aircraft under a lease agreement. To finalize this deal, Airbus had promised to pay a bribe of 16.84 million US dollars (over three billion rupees) to Mr. Kapila Chandrasena and his wife, of which two million US dollars (362 million rupees) was actually paid to them. To facilitate this bribe, Airbus utilized a shell company registered in Brunei, introducing Mr. Chandrasena's wife as a business partner.

This company was established on October 05, 2012, under the full ownership and directorship of the said woman, who had no experience in the aviation sector, and she was appointed as a business consultant for Airbus in March 2013. The SMO division, Airbus's sales department in Paris, operated their bribery network by naming this shell company "Airbus Employee 8". Subsequently, according to the consultancy agreement between the two parties, it was agreed to pay the woman's company one million dollars for every A330 aircraft purchased by SriLankan, 1.16 million dollars for an A350 aircraft, and three hundred thousand dollars for a leased aircraft. Additionally, they entered into a market share agreement to pay another five million dollars for influencing SriLankan not to purchase aircraft from any other competing company until October 30, 2015.

Three months after this agreement, on June 19, 2013, SriLankan Airlines placed an order for aircraft worth 2.8 billion US dollars at the Paris Air Show. Concurrently with the exhibition, Mr. Kapila Chandrasena appeared in a promotional video released by Airbus, stating that SriLankan Airlines being exclusively equipped with Airbus aircraft would greatly facilitate its operational and technical activities, and that this relationship would be maintained for the next 20 years. Two months after signing the deal, the Brunei company submitted a one million dollar invoice, and to receive payments, Mr. Kapila Chandrasena directly communicated with Airbus via his personal email (Gmail) and arranged to open a Euro account at Standard Chartered Bank. Accordingly, on November 13 and December 02, 2013, Mr. Chandrasena himself submitted new invoices, and on December 27, 2013, the two million US dollars (in Euros) was credited to his wife's company.

After it was proven in the High Court of England that Airbus had paid bribes to 20 countries, including Sri Lanka, the company was fined a historic three billion pounds. This Sri Lankan bribery deal was uncovered when Airbus sought loan facilities from the UK Export Finance department. Although Airbus attempted to conceal information about the agent in the deal, suspicions arose due to the contradictory answers provided by the company during intense questioning by the Export Finance department. Following Airbus's false statement that the agent was not the wife of the SriLankan chief, they withdrew their loan application in March 2015, and in April 2016, the UK Export Finance department took steps to hand over all this fraudulent information to the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO).