2008-03-07

Mihin Lanka pulls out of three destinations

Mihin Lanka which launched flights to six destinations in South India, East Asia and the Middle East has now been compelled to reduce them to three destinations from April with flights in South India already been suspended. The two weekly flights now in operation to Bangkok will be suspended from the end of this month.

The airline now operates flights only to Singapore, Bangkok, Maldives and Dubai, a spokesperson of the flights reservation desk said.

“We do not know when the suspended flights will be resumed. The flights to Trivandrum and Trichy were suspended due to poor bookings. We have postponed our plans to start flights to several other destinations in east and west Asia,” she said.

She said there has been a sharp drop in bookings in almost all destinations since the unscheduled and abrupt landing of a Mihin Air flight in Mumbai in January due to a technical failure.

“The negative publicity received after that incident has affected the airline badly,” she said.

Civil Aviation Director General Parakrama Dissanayaka said the airline has renewed its annual “Air Operation Safety’ certificate recently as the first certificate issued at the inception would expire by the end of this month.

Mihin Lanka operates its flights with a 320 Airbus obtained on a wet lease from a Bulgarian company. The company did not use a second aircraft obtained on wet lease from Turkey last year, Mr. Dissanayaka told the Daily Mirror.

Attempts to reach Mihin Lanka Chairman Sajin Vas Gunaweardana or Head of Finance Sajeeewa Swaris failed yesterday as there was no response from the head office.



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