The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority plans to attract 800,000 tourists during the rest of the year.
The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority plans to attract 800,000 tourists during the rest of the year.
Sri Lanka to resume flights from North Jaffna Peninsula India next month, Sri Lankan Minister of Aviation Nimal Siripala de Silva has said, adding that the move will support the country’s tourism industry and help ease Sri Lanka’s economic crisis,
The Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority plans to attract 800,000 tourists during the rest of the year.
Aviation Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva said on Saturday: “The Palali airport on the northern Jaffna peninsula is about to resume flights to India from next month.” However, he did not specify any date.
What was the reason for the economic crisis in Sri Lanka?
A video on the causes of the Sri Lankan economic crisis of 2022. Video Credits: The Hindu
“Resuming flights will improve tourism and help the country tide over the current dollar crisis,” de Silva said after inspecting the airport.
He said the existing runway has only 75-seater flights and hence there is a need to increase it.
He expected Indian assistance to improve the runway.
The airport was renamed Jaffna International Airport in October 2019. The first international flight to land there was from Chennai.
The 2019 redevelopment of the airport was funded by both Sri Lanka and India.
Earlier, India’s Alliance Air operated three weekly flights from Chennai to Palali. However, after the change of government in Sri Lanka in November 2019, flight operations were halted.
Sri Lanka is currently facing the worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1948.
The economic crisis has prompted severe shortages of essential items like food, medicine, cooking gas and other fuels, toilet paper and even matches, with Sri Lankans waiting for hours outside shops to buy fuel and cooking gas. was forced to do.
The island nation’s economic slowdown was primarily blamed on covid-19 pandemic With the decline of the island nation’s tourism revenue and inward remittances.