In the wake of the serial bomb blasts in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, two domestic airlines are offering a reprieve to passengers headed to the island country in the next two days. “In light of the recent events in Colombo, we are providing full fee waiver on rescheduling/cancellation for all flights to/from Colombo for travel scheduled till April 24, 2019,” IndiGo tweeted yesterday.
The country’s largest airline connects close to 40 Indian cities with Colombo, including several Tier 2 cities such as Bhubaneswar, Indore, Jaipur, Kozhikode, Jammu, Nagpur and Vijayawada.
In another tweet, IndiGo also asked passengers headed back home to reach Colombo airport well in advance. “With the recent turn of events, there is heightened security at Colombo Airport. Request passengers to reach 4 hrs prior to their departure to avoid any inconvenience,” read the post.
Similarly, Air India, which reportedly operates two daily flights to Colombo from the national capital, has also made a similar announcement on Twitter. “In view of the situation in #Srilanka #AirIndia has waived off all charges for rescheduling/cancellation of bookings on its flts to/from Colombo for travel till April 24, 2019,” the airline tweeted. Incidentally, Air India Express, too, flies a daily Chennai-Colombo flight, an official told PTI.
India is the largest source market for Sri Lanka, accounting for close to 20% of the 2.3 million tourist inflow in 2018. In fact, the island nation was expecting the total Indian tourist arrivals to cross the one million mark in 2019, but local tour operators and hoteliers say that the recent blasts, with a death toll of over 200, will have an “adverse impact” on the summer holiday season.
