Covid-19 wave in India keeps Jaffna International Airport closed

BIA and Mattala reopens to inbound passengers

by Suresh Perera

Though the Bandaranaike and Mattala International Airports reopened to inbound passenger traffic on June 1, Sri Lanka’s third and newest international airport in Jaffna will remain inoperative until further notice, officials said.

The Jaffna International Airport, which was opened on October 17, 2019, catered to passenger volumes largely from the southern Indian city of Chennai. However, with the eruption of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was decided to halt both inbound and outbound flights and close the airport temporarily on March 18, 2020.

The maiden international flight to touch down at the airport in northern Sri Lanka was an ATR-72 turboprop airliner of Alliance Air (a regional subsidiary of Air India). Thereafter, regular scheduled flights operated between India and Sri Lanka until its closure amidst coronavirus fears.

“The BIA and Mattala International Airports are now open to inbound passengers. However, there is still no decision to reopen the Jaffna International Airport, which has remained shut for some time”, says Capt. Themiya Abeywickrama, DG/CEO of the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka (CAASL).

Outbound flights from the BIA and Mattala are operating as scheduled, he told The Sunday Island.

The Jaffna airport is expected to remain inoperative for many more months to come as the alarming Covid-19 wave that swept across India has already claimed around 400,000 lives, officials said.

In terms of a CAASL directive, all passengers from India and Vietnam remain temporarily debarred from entering Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, the first flight to land after the BIA reopened on June 1 was a Qatar Airways passenger carrier from Doha.

With 53 Sri Lankan and foreign passengers on board, flight QR668 touched down at 2.15 am.

The next to arrive was a SriLankan Airlines flight UL218 also from Doha, which landed at the BIA at 4.05 am.

All incoming local and foreign passengers have to undergo mandatory 14-day quarantine with two PCR screenings at intervals before being cleared for onward travel.

In case Covid-19 symptoms emerge during the quarantine period, they will be transferred to a treatment facility, officials said.

The BIA was temporarily closed from May 21 midnight as a precautionary measure following the worsening Covid-19 situation in the country.