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Sri Lanka is seeking foreign assistance to rescue its loss-making national carrier after the govt announced the airline was unable to pay back nearly US$1b in debt. The country cannot afford to bear SriLankan Airlines’ losses of $872m on top of its massive debt, international trade minister Sujeewa Senasinghe said. The airline owes at least $933m but the govt last week said the true figure could be much higher. “We want to restructure SriLankan with either direct foreign capital or through a management agreement with a foreign airline,” Senasinghe said. He added that he hopes the process will be completed within “2 to 3 months”. Official sources said Colombo was in talks with a Middle Eastern carrier to form an agreement that would see the airline hand over control of its management to a foreign carrier. <br/>

Starting Friday, American Airlines will get rid of a feature that let customers lock in airfare for 24 hours without having to put any money down. Instead, it will switch to the model most other airlines follow: Travellers will now have the ability to cancel a flight and receive a full refund as long as they cancel within 24 hours of booking. Under federal law, airlines have to offer travellers the option to cancel a reservation and receive a refund within 24 hours or to put a flight on hold at the current price for 24 hours. American said it is switching to the model that most other airlines use to minimise confusion for travellers. Under the outgoing system, some customers who booked flights with American and then called to cancel their trips within 24 hours were upset to learn that a refund was not an option, said an American Airlines spokesman. <br/>