Sri Lankan Airlines has announced to cancel its services from Colombo to various destinations in Southern India, including Trichy, for three months next year to carry out repair works on the runway at the Bandaranaike International Airport. According to sources, the cancellation would be effective from January 6, 2017 to April 6, 2017. The Lankan national carrier has also cancelled its flights to Chennai, Cochin and Bangalore. The closure of Bandaranaike International Airport will affect flights of all airlines that operate to this airport. TNN

As of now, Sri Lankan Airlines is operating two flights between Colombo and Trichy sector daily. 

"Thousands of people hailing from Trichy region are working in the Gulf. Since there is no direct connectivity to the Gulf, they are largely relaying on Sri Lankan Airlines as Colombo is the only transit point for them to proceed to Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Daman, Jeddah, Riyadh, Doha, Bahrain, Kuwait and Muscat from there," says travel agents.

Once the service between Trichy and Colombo would be cut, the passengers will have to go via Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram or Chennai to catch a flight to Gulf countries. This would create inconvenience as it would increase time and cost, they added.

This apart, cargo movement would also be affected once the service cut would be come into force, authorities from cargo terminal in Trichy airport said.

Though the termination of service is for a brief period of time, it would affect the cargo movement considerably, they added.

(India Times)