Sri Lankan Deputy Minister of State Enterprise Development Eran Wickramaratne told Xinhua that eight parties expressed interests and they were shortlisted to three. He said the Requests for Proposals were being evaluated at the moment.

After that, he said recommendations would be made to the relevant parties.

"That process will take place by January. If there is no satisfactory party recommended to us, it will end there," he said.

Besides, he said the national career would rationalize its fleet and routes with the focus of developing it as a regional airline.

(news.xinhuanet.com)