Sri Lanka's national carrier, SriLankan Airlines on Friday (29) issued a statement in response to flight delays and cancellations experienced over the past few days.

"Over the last few days, we at SriLankan Airlines have needed to cancel several flights mainly due to a number of technical issues which required temporary grounding of aircraft," said SriLankan Airlines in a statement.

It added that these are routine issues, and aircraft maintenance follows very strict procedures which necessitate repairs or replacement parts before the aircraft are cleared to fly. 

"Unfortunately, in this case we suffered a number of groundings at the same time. Every effort has been made to accommodate passengers on alternative flights on SriLankan Airlines and other carriers, and we have accommodated passengers in hotels where necessary.," said the national airlines.

"We also fully understand that this has affected the travel and plans of many of our guests. We apologize for the disruption and inconvenience caused and assure all our loyal customers that we are working diligently to minimize such occurrences moving forward," it added.

Minister of Ports and Aviation Nimal Siripala de Silva says that a discussion regarding the measures to be taken with regard to the cancellation and delay of SriLankan flights will be held next Monday.

The Minister said the discussion will be held with trade union representatives. 

In the past few days, many flights operated by SriLankan Airlines were either delayed on cancelled leading to passenger inconveniences.