Colombo: A diplomatic row has erupted between Sri Lanka and Russia after Lanka’s Bandaranaike International Airport detained an Airbus A330 aircraft of Russia and did not allow the flight with 191 passengers and 13 crew members to to depart.
Sri Lanka’s top envoy was summoned to the Russian foreign ministry to receive a “resolute protest” over the detention, Russian state news agency TASS reported. But Airport and Aviation Services, which runs Bandaranaike airport, said the dispute was “purely of a commercial nature” and should not be subject to state involvement.
The plane was stopped on the orders of Colombo commercial court in response to a commercial dispute filing by Celestial Aviation Trading 10 Limited of Ireland. Aeroflot had suspended all international flights in March following Western sanctions over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, but resumed operations to Colombo the following month. It remains unclear whether the detention was related to those sanctions.
According to media reports, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has told Moscow that the issue with the seizure of the aircraft is not between two countries but a private legal matter. A spokesman from the Prime Minister’s office said that Wickremesinghe did have a discussion on the issue with the secretary ministry of foreign affairs and advised him what should be done.
Minister of aviation Nimal Siripala de Silva acknowledged that the issue would make an impact on the tourism industry in Sri Lanka, in addition to the foreign exchange crisis. The Russian airline has decided to suspend its commercial flights to Colombo from June 4, after eight months of operation.
The company owning the aircraft had pleaded in the court that Aeroflot was told not to fly the plane after the lease agreement came to be terminated in March.
