May 04, Colombo: Sri Lanka’s budget airline Mihin Lanka has been forced to suspend its operations indefinitely due to lack of passenger planes, an official said.

Head of the Sri Lanka Civil Aviation, Parakrama Dissanayake told the media that Mihin Lanka doesn’t have an aircraft to fly passengers since the beginning of this month.

“Passengers booked to travel are now being transferred to other airlines until Mihin finds another aircraft,” Dissanayake said.

Its last air craft an Airbus A321, which was taken on lease, was reclaimed by its Bulgarian owners at the end of April, due to the airline being unable to make payments, media reports said.

Chief Executive Officer of the cash strapped airline, Sajin Vaas Gunawardena resigned last month but remained as a member of the board of the airline.

The budget airways named after President Mahinda Rajapaksa was reportedly invested mainly by the pension funds of government employees and was managed by President’s close confederates. However, the venture turned a failure due to the extravagant and ineffective management though the reasons remain unclear, according to the sources.