Sri Lanka to ground former president's 'vanity airline'

Sri Lanka will scrap an airline set up by the country's strongman former president and widely seen as a vanity project, with the national carrier set to take over its routes, an official said Wednesday. Budget carrier Mihin Lanka was founded by Mahinda Rajapakse in 2007 but operated at a huge loss. SriLankan airlines chairman Ajith Dias said the flag carrier would cover flights to all destinations serviced by the airline, which officials said had accumulated losses of $117 million.
"By the end of the year, there will be no Mihin Lanka and we (SriLankan airlines) will be servicing the routes they operated," Dias said in Colombo at the opening of a new call centre for the national carrier. Mihin, which operates four Airbus aircraft to several Indian cities as well as Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Seychelles, the Maldives and Bahrain, is expected to cease flying by the end of 2016.