Several months of economic crisis and political unrest in Sri Lanka have led budget carrier flydubai to suspend flight operations to the country's capital, Colombo, until further notice. This comes after the United Arab Emirates Embassy issued an advisory on travel to the country, asking its citizens not to travel to Sri Lanka and stay away from the areas where demonstrations are being held.
Cited as one of its popular destinations, which has seen an increase in demand for flights, the budget airline has little choice but to follow the advisory and said that passengers with existing bookings would be offered refunds, highlighting in a statement:
“flydubai flights between Dubai and Colombo Airport have been suspended from July 10th until further notice. We will continue to closely monitor the situation on the ground in Sri Lanka. Passengers who have booked to travel on these flights will be contacted and offered a refund - we apologize for the inconvenience caused to our passengers’ travel schedules."
Sri Lanka's economy relies heavily on the tourist trade. Due to the pandemic, one of the country's most significant foreign currency earners was dramatically affected and is yet to recover properly. Now, the country's foreign currency reserves have virtually dried out, leaving it with insufficient funds to buy goods and resources from other countries.
This led to the price of everyday goods rising sharply, with inflation reaching almost 55%. And without any foreign currency, Sri Lanka has been unable to provide or import sufficient fuel for essential transport services like buses, medical vehicles, and trains. The lack of fuel has also caused gasoline and diesel prices to shoot up drastically since the start of the year, forcing the government to ban the sale of gasoline and diesel for non-essential vehicles for two whole weeks, probably becoming the first country to do so since the 1970s.
Undoubtedly, the lack of fuel supplies has affected the nation's aviation industry , which resulted in several airlines making critical cuts to their initial schedules due to the lack of ability to refuel. flydubai was one of the airlines affected, needing to refuel at foreign airports or carry more fuel on its flights to the country. When coupled with the unrest escalating within Sri Lanka, cutting services is now seen as the preferred option.
Given how costly and marginally inconvenient flight operations to Sri Lanka have inevitably become, it was no surprise that flydubai too the decision to suspend its flight operations. It is the second carrier to do so, with TUI being the first. Following an issued notice from the Sri Lankan government citing police curfews, the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office advised against all but essential travel to the disrupted country.
With the advice handed down and similar to flydubai, TUI had no choice but to cancel several more flights to Sri Lanka. The airline had initially canceled services until the end of June, but is now extending this to the end of this month. The airline said:
"Due to the ongoing political and economic instability in Sri Lanka, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has advised against all but essential travel. As a result, we’ve unfortunately had to cancel all holidays to Sri Lanka departing up to and including July 18th."
TUI mentioned that it would contact all affected passengers to discuss their options further, emphasizing that the advice does not apply to passengers transiting through Bandaranaike International Airport but only to those who have the airport as their final destination.
Despite more advisories being issued by relevant authorities, not all airlines have been affected to the extent of having to suspend their flight operations to Sri Lanka. Emirates and Etihad Airways are planning to continue serving their respective routes as usual while closely monitoring the situation in Sri Lanka. Etihad said that, starting from July 14th, some of its services from Colombo would stop at India's Cochin International Airport for refueling before returning to its home base.
But unless the situation starts improving and the fuel shortage disspates, Sri Lanka will inevitably become more of an inconvenient and risky destination instead of being a popular tourist hotspot. And even before the status of the country truly falls to that, stricter advisories and more complications will be the one that causes more airlines to start suspending flight operations.
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