Saudia, formerly known as the Saudi Arabian Airlines, will commence scheduled flights to Sri Lanka from next month.

Speaking to The Sunday Morning Business, Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) (Pvt.) Ltd. (AASL) Chairman Maj. Gen. (Retd) G.A. Chandrasiri stated that negotiations were ongoing with Saudia to commence scheduled flights to Sri Lanka, and that it was likely to commence operating flights to Sri Lanka from next month.

“Saudia will commence flights to Sri Lanka from Abu Dhabi. We are currently discussing with them, but they will start very soon – most likely by next month,” he stated.

Last month, Minister of Tourism Harin Fernando met with Saudi Arabian Ambassador Khalid Hamoud Al-Kahtani for a discussion centred on developing tourism between the two countries.

Maj. Gen. (Retd) Chandrasiri further stated that Russia’s largest charter airline, Azur Air, had commenced flights to Sri Lanka from Wednesday (1). 

He revealed that Azur Air would operate four chartered scheduled flights per week to the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) until March 2024. 

He also stated that Russian Red Wings Airlines, which currently operates four scheduled flights per week to the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA), would commence operating scheduled flights on all seven days of the week.

This represents a marked turnaround in Sri Lanka’s relations with Russia following the incident earlier this year when an A330-300 flight operated by Aeroflot was briefly detained due to a dispute with the lessor of the flight, AerCap’s special purpose vehicle Celestial Aviation Trading Ltd.

Even though steps were taken to quickly release the aircraft and despite the Government taking immediate efforts to guarantee that no further seizures would be carried out in Sri Lanka, Russian airlines were initially reluctant to return to the island.