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Sri Lanka's budget airliner Mihin Lanka, which had shut down its operations since May this year due to global financial crisis, is all set to resume its operations to India and other countries from December 21.
The airline will lease an aircraft from France to re-launch these operations and will fly daily to Dubai, Trichy and Trivandram with the resumption of the flight, the state owned Daily News quoted an official as saying.
"The airline is now in the process of evaluating tenders to seal the best option to wet lease the aircraft. It is expected that the lessee would provide us with pilots and some crew members," an airline official said.
It is expected that the government would once again come out to fund the airline, the newspaper reported.
However, the official dismissed speculation that the airline would merge with Lankan Airlines.
"We are looking at synergies where both could work together," official said.
Mihin, which was flying to Bodhgaya, Maldives, Bangkok and Singapore, temporarily halted operations six months ago.It was flying both to Trichy and Trivandram thrice a week, prior to suspending its work, officials said.
The airline plans to resume its flights to Bodhgaya in Bihar also. It had started its non-stop weekly service to Bodhgaya from September last year, catering to its lakhs of Buddhist citizens.
"We are excited about expanding our services to Bodhgaya, one of the most important and sacred Buddhist pilgrimage centres in the world and bringing our growing network to the Indian state of Bihar," the airways said in its statement.