Russian Aeroflot aircraft leaves Sri Lanka after being held for 4 days

A plane of the Russian airline Aeroflot left Sri Lanka on Monday after being held for four days, after a court suspended a court order that prevented the flight from leaving the island due to the termination of a private agreement as a result of sanctions against Moscow for the invasion of Ukraine.

The plane finally left Colombo’s Bandaranaike International Airport this afternoon for Moscow, airport sources confirmed to EFE, a trip scheduled since June 2 with 191 passengers and 13 crew members on board.

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A Sri Lankan court today stayed a previous court order that ordered a halt to the departure of the aircraft, based on a commercial dispute between Ireland’s Celestial Aviation, one of the largest aircraft leasing firms, and Aeroflot.

“On June 2, 2022, the Western Province High Court of Commerce issued a prohibitory order on the Aeroflot flight preventing it from taking off from Bandaranaike International Airport,” Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement at the time.

The owner of the plane had argued in court that the Russian airline’s flight was not allowed to take off after it terminated the lease in March in line with sanctions against Russia for invading Ukraine.

Despite being a purely commercial issue that was to be dealt with without the involvement of the Sri Lankan government, according to airport and aviation services, the legal dispute strained relations between Russia and the island nation.

After learning that the plane would not be able to leave for the Russian capital as planned, the Russian Foreign Ministry recalled the Sri Lankan ambassador to her country for consultations to protest the order, while Aeroflot suspended the rest of its flights to the island nation, the Russian agency Tass reported.

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The essential role that Russia plays in the ailing Sri Lankan economy caused hundreds of people to organize a peaceful protest this Monday in front of the Russian embassy in Colombo where they handed the ambassador a letter of apology to President Vladimir Putin, in an attempt to “protect peace” between the two nations.

Subsequently, and without yet knowing the ruling allowing the flight to depart, they delivered a statement to Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, calling for an early resolution of the conflict.

“We cannot tolerate this. This is going to affect the friendly relations Sri Lanka and Russia had over the years,” W. N. Sampath Perera, president of the Professional Tourist Guides Alliance, told Efe.

He further added that Russia has always been an ally of Sri Lanka, providing thousands of scholarships to Sri Lankan students and even helping to strengthen Sri Lanka’s crisis-hit economy through tourism.

Russia remains Sri Lanka’s second largest tourism market, according to Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority statistics, so the suspension of Russian tourism would be a serious loss for the island nation.

Photo: Johannes/Wikimedia

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