Aeroflot swings back to Sri Lanka today

Russia’s flag carrier Aeroflot resumed services to Colombo today, initially with two flights per week.

Taking to Twitter, Tourism Minister Harin Fernando said the development would increase tourist inflow from Russia to Sri Lanka significantly, whilst extending his appreciation to the Russian Embassy in Sri Lanka and the Sri Lankan Embassy in Russia for their efforts taken to resume services.

The airline is resuming operations today after an infringement of four months.

On 2 June, SU289, A330-343 aircraft was scheduled to depart from Colombo to Moscow with 191 passengers and 13 crew members, but it was not allowed, as the owner of the aircraft – Celestial Aviation of Ireland had filed a case against the airline, for a pending arbitration on the lease of the aircraft in London. Following the legal dispute, Aeroflot also announced that it was suspending commercial flights between Colombo and Moscow.

Aeroflot is the oldest international airline that operated flights to Colombo, and it has been operating the Moscow-Colombo route since 1964. In 2020, the airline had to stop operations in Colombo due to the COVID pandemic and resumed operations post-pandemic on 21 November 2021. Since the reopening of borders on 21 January 2021, the number of Russian tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka increased.

Russia remains the third largest tourism source market year-to-date with 51,300 arrivals, behind India and UK.