Colombo, March 4 (PTI): Sri Lanka's first budget airline ran into a rocky start when its maiden test flight today was grounded due to technical problems, airline officials said.

The airline, known as Mihin Air, chartered a Fokker-27 plane from a private airline here to prove that it was fit to operate a passenger service using that type of aircraft.

Two and a half hours after the scheduled take off from the Bandaranaike International Airport, the Thiruvananthapuram-bound aircraft was still on the ground, an airport spokesman said.

He said an unspecified technical glitch was delaying the take off and there was no new take off time announced by the authorities.

Sri Lanka's government is funding the new budget airline to compete with its national carrier Sri Lanka which is partly owned and fully managed by Emirates airline of Dubai.