Some passengers travelling to Sri Lanka during day time between January and April 2017 will be required to reschedule their travel time, says travel industry sources.
There will be rescheduling of flights for three months from January 6, 2017 due to runway repairs that will stop flight operations at Sri Lanka’s Bandaranaike International Airport during day time. The airport will remain closed from 8.30am to 4.30pm Colombo time each day for runway maintenance work. Therefore, day flights will be shifted to other timings.
The closure of Bandaranaike International Airport will affect flights of all airlines that operate to the airport.
While some airlines have rescheduled flights to and from the Bandaranaike International Airport during the first quarter of 2017, other airlines have taken measures to reduce the number of flights temporarily.
“Passengers who have already booked tickets on any airline to Colombo during the maintenance time should contact their travel agent or the nearest airlines ticket office for details on revised times or alternative routings,” a travel advisor told The Peninsula yesterday.
“It’s unlikely that the number of flights by different airlines from Doha to Colombo will be reduced. We have received the rescheduled time by airline operators. But we cannot rule out the possibility of flights getting cancelled during the three months,” he added.
Bandaranaike International Airport handles an average of 170 flights per day with roughly 60 flights taking place during daytime. In 2015 around 8.2 million passengers passed through the airport. “Passengers travelling on connecting flights from Doha to other cities via Colombo would face a delay in flights from Colombo to their destination ,” said a travel consultant.
“As flight operation time has been reduced by eight hours per day, the airport and runway will be extremely busy during the night hours. Therefore passengers are also likely to face unexpected delays in landing, departure and baggage clearance,” he added. This is the first time overlaying work is being carried out on the Bandaranaike International Airport since it completed construction in 1986.
