So many pilots have quit SriLankan Airlines in the past six months that the national carrier may have to cancel some flights, a senior company official said on Monday.

Thirty of the company's more than 200 pilots have quit since late 2005 looking for better prospects at other airlines, and the shortage forced SriLankan to cancel two London-bound flights last week.

"We had... about 210 pilots running our scheduled flights to 48 destinations in about 29 countries, so now when we have minus 30 it is very difficult to keep up with the same schedule," said Chandana de Silva, head of corporate management.

"This week there won't be any cancellations, no disruptions whatsoever. Next week there may be to our flight to London and to Paris... we are not sure about that," he added, saying the company was also taking aircraft out of commission for scheduled maintenance work.

SriLankan -- which is 51 percent owned by the Sri Lankan state, 44 percent by Emirates and the remainder by its staff -- plans to launch a recruitment drive to boost its pilot numbers.