Sri Lankan officials are getting increasingly desperate to find a private-sector partner to share the burden of rehabilitating SriLankan Airlines. The airline, which for a decade was managed and partly owned by Emirates, saw its expenses and debt level soar after the carrier pulled out its team in 2008 amid tensions with then-president Mahinda Rajapaksa and his family. Prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe kicked off the search for a new partner for SriLankan last year, culminating in the selection of TPG Capital, a US private equity group with a record of guiding airline turnarounds, ahead of seven other bidders. May 5, however, SriLankan chairman Ajith Dias said that TPG had ended talks to buy a 49% stake after completing its due diligence on the airline and concluding potential returns were less attractive than other investment options. <br/>