JEDDAH, 25 July — Flights from Saudi Arabia to the Sri Lankan capital have been rescheduled following the closure of Colombo airport after a terrorist attack, airline sources said last night.
“The Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA), which has been temporarily closed in the wake of a terrorist attack on an adjoining air force base, is now expected to reopen for international flights tomorrow,” a source at the SriLankan Airlines told Arab News.
Saudi Arabian Airlines yesterday canceled a flight from Jeddah to Colombo and SriLankan its flight from Dammam. An airline source said a Saudia flight from Riyadh carrying 237 passengers to Colombo returned to the King Khaled International Airport a few minutes after takeoff.
Saudia reportedly will operate its flight from Jeddah to Colombo via Riyadh tomorrow night. Both SriLankan and Saudia operate four weekly flights from the Kingdom to Colombo, the country’s only international airport. The four Sri Lankan flights are two each from Dammam and Riyadh.
Passengers from Jeddah normally fly by Emirates to Dubai and onward to Colombo by SriLankan.
The cancellation of flights for two days by the two airlines has resulted in rescheduling holiday plans of hundreds of Sri Lankan vacationers, other tourists and businessmen to the island state and those flying to various destinations via Colombo. SriLankan has been carrying passengers from the Kingdom to Malaysia and other Far East destinations.
A SriLankan Airlines source said the airport would be ready today for five outgoing flights from Colombo — to Paris via Zurich, Frankfurt, London via Dubai, Male and Tokyo.
Six flights arriving into BIA yesterday had been diverted to the Indian cities of Madras and Trivandrum. All passengers affected by the cancellations and diversions had been accommodated in hotels. “They will be booked on the first available flights to their destinations,” the airline source said.
