Russian plane halted in Sri Lanka !

Top Russian diplomats and Sri Lankan government leaders have reached a written agreement not to detain Russian planes on arrival in Sri Lanka for any reason. Sources at the airport say that a situation is developing.

Russia is currently the largest tourist destination in Sri Lanka.

An airline spokesman also said that around 400,000 Russian tourists were scheduled to visit Sri Lanka this winter.

He added that the plane, which arrived from Russia on June 2, also carried about 250 Russian tourists.

Russian Aeroflot operates direct flights to Katunayake Airport three days a week on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays.

The spokesman said that the incident was a conspiracy to bring Russian tourists to Sri Lanka, thereby gaining foreign exchange for the country and to create a tense situation with Russia, a long-standing friendly country, thereby severing close ties between the two countries.

Many other aircraft, including this one, have been insured by an Irish insurance company, making it difficult to pay insurance premiums to the company due to the sudden Ukraine-Russia war.

As a solution, Aeroflot has reinsured all these aircraft to an insurance company in Russia.

They have lodged a complaint with the Colombo Commercial High Court against the suspension of premiums to the Irish Insurance Company.

Several lawyers arrived at the Katunayake airport on the afternoon of June 2 and found the pilots of the aircraft to hand over the enjoining order, which was later handed over to the Katunayake Airport Chief Migration Officer.

The A330 Airbus SU289 has been flown to Katunayake Airport 7 times and returned to Russia.

A Russian national carrier Aeroflot has been grounded at the Katunayake International Airport since noon yesterday (June 2) following an order by the Colombo Commercial High Court suspending its return flight to Russia from the Katunayake International Airport.

The Russian Airflot flight SU288 was scheduled to arrive at Katunayake Airport from Moscow, Russia at 10.10 am yesterday and return to Moscow, Russia at 12.50 pm.

Accordingly, the passengers were directed to tourist hotels around the Katunayake Airport.

The Moscow government decided in March to suspend some flights to Russian airlines, including Aeroflot, London and Dubai, and a number of countries have banned the airline from entering its home countries.