Direct flights between Chennai in India and Jaffna, Sri Lanka have recommenced after a period of 2 years, Minister of Tourism Harin Fernando said on Monday (12).
The first direct passenger flight operated by Alliance Air from Chennai arrived at the Palaly Airport in Jaffna yesterday.
Speaking to NewsWire, Minister Harin Fernando said, “People in the North had to face difficulties in taking a flight to India before this. They had to spend around Rs. 90,000 to reach Colombo by travelling by road for over 08 hours and then take a flight to India which is another 2 hours.”
He said, however, the recommencement of passenger flights between Chennai and India will assist in easing the long travels of the people in the North in several ways.
Highlighting that this will also help improve the tourism industry, he also noted that plans are afoot to work on the Ramayana Trail and implement domestic flight operations between Palaly, Jaffna and the Ratmalana airport in Colombo as well.
The Tourism Minister said that discussions are underway with Alliance Express India on commencing flights between Jaffna and Ratmalana, adding that the CEO of Alliance Air, Vineet Sood, COO of Alliance Air, Amresh Choudary and Marketing Manager, Mannu Anand were present during discussions about further developing the flight operations.
“Duty-free operations will also commence in the next three weeks at the Palaly Airport in Jaffna,” Minister Harin Fernando added.
Sri Lanka’s Tourism Minister further expressed his gratitude to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs for their support in launching direct passenger flights between Chennai and Jaffna. (NewsWire)
