Published 17:09 IST, June 4th 2022

Sri Lanka: Russia's Aeroflot suspends commercial flights to Colombo after plane's seizure

In response to the seizure of its Airbus A330 jet by the Sri Lankan authorities, Russia's Aeroflot airline has suspended its commercial flights to Colombo.

Reported by: Anurag Roushan
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In response to seizure of its Airbus A330 jet by Sri Lankan authorities, Russia's Aeroflot airline has suspended its commercial flights to Colombo. This comes a day after Russian-operated Airbus was seized in island nation just before it was scheduled to return to Moscow with around 200 passengers on board. "Aeroflot is suspending commercial flights to Colombo for immediate period due to an unreliable situation in terms of airline's unobstructed flights to Sri Lanka. sales of tickets for flights to Colombo have been temporarily shut down,"   Russian Airline said in a statement, Daily Mirror reported. 

statement furr noted that passengers with return tickets to Russia from Colombo on June 2, 4, and 5 will be transported to Russia from Sri Lanka on June 4 and 5. It furr stated that repatriation flights would fly to Colombo sans passengers. airline also ensured that passengers having tickets to Moscow for later dates would also be brought back as per ir schedule. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's Airport and Aviation Services issued a statement on Friday stating that flight to Moscow, which was supposed to depart on June 2, h been cancelled due to lack of permission from country's aviation authorities.

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A court hearing over Russia's aeroplane seizure is scheduled for June 8

Furr, Sri Lanka's Commercial High Court stated that disagreement between Russian airline and Celestial Aviation Tring Limited (CATL) was entirely a commercial matter that should be resolved between two parties, with no government interference. Sri Lanka's Airport and Aviation Services stated that a court hearing to lift aeroplane's seizure is scheduled for June 8. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Ministry announced that it has summoned Sri Lankan Ambassor Janitha Abeywickrama Liyanage and protested seizure of an Aeroflot Airbus at Bandaranaike International Airport.

Russian government called on Sri Lanka to resolve issue as soon as possible

"We called on Sri Lankan side to resolve this problem in a short time in order to avoid its negative impact on tritionally friendly bilateral relations," ministry stated, Daily Mirror reported. It should be noted here that Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also proposed to privatise country's airline which is running into severe losses. " loss for 2020-2021 alone amounts to SLR 45 billion. By 31st March 2021, total loss was at 372 billion. Even if we privatise Sri Lankan airline, this is a loss that we must bear," he remarked," he stated while dressing nation on May 17. 

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Image: AP/Representative

17:09 IST, June 4th 2022