SriLankan Airlines faces permanent grounding?

Colombo, Feb 26 (Daily Mirror) - Restructuring of the national carrier SriLankan Airlines is in tatters after Sunday’s ground handling debacle, Minister of Ports, Shipping and Aviation Nimal Siripala de Silva said today.

“Deadline given to potential investors for submitting expressions to partner the national carrier ends on March 5. The information we have received as of now is that all those who have already expressed interest are planning to withdraw after the Sunday’s flight delay. We will have no option but to ground SriLankan airlines for good in  this situation,” the Minister told a discussion which was open to the media as well.

Representatives of SriLankan Airlines and its Chairman Ashok Pathirage told the discussion that four flights were delayed on Sunday – with rats being found in two aircrafts while two others had technical issues. 
“We had to spray a chemical to the two aircraft in which rats were found and ground them for one day as per the international standards,” Mr. Pathirage said.

It was also revealed that absence of 15 ground handling staff also caused the delay. 

Three members of staff have applied for leave on Sunday while the remaining 12 have kept away from work casually. 

“Sack those who kept away from work without applying for leave,” the angry minister said.