Sri Lanka is likely to lost about 400,000 tourists scheduled to arrive in the island over the event of the Colombo Commercial High Court issuing an order barring a Russian Aeroflot flight from leaving the country, sources disclosed.
The Colombo Commercial High Court issued the order barring the flight’s departure based on a complaint lodged by a private company, inconveniencing the entire flight crew and about 200 Russian passengers.
Calling in the Sri Lankan Ambassador to Russia, the Russian government expressed their displeasure over the event. As of now, Aeroflot has suspended its commercial flights to Sri Lanka and the issuance of air tickets as well.
The move could risk the arrival of about 400,000 Russian tourists, according to industry sources.
Following the international turmoil awaken by the Russian-Ukrainian war, many countries imposed travel bans to Russia, due to which the former Soviet country has selected Sri Lanka to be one of their best travel destinations. The arrival of the Russian tourists was also a golden opportunity for Sri Lanka given that some of the world’s leading countries issued warnings to their citizens regarding their travels to Sri Lanka amidst its economic collapse.
Accordingly, it would be a question of who wants to create such an unnecessary hassle and risk the arrival of such a large number of tourists amidst the meltdown befallen the island nation, field sources further said.
MIAP