UL announces flights to bring stranded Lankans back from UK, Australia

Saturday, 2 May 2020 15:56 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Sri Lankan Airlines has announced the operation of flights to repatriate Sri Lankan nationals stranded in the United Kingdom and Australia.

The national carrier said today that through the Sri Lankan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it will operate repatriation flights for Sri Lankan nationals from London, UK and Melbourne, Australia.

The flight to UK will depart Colombo at 0035 hours on 3 May arriving at 0730 hours in London, and will leave London on 4 May at 0930 hours reaching Colombo on 5 May at 0045 hours.

The flight to Melbourne will leave Colombo on 8 May at 0020 hours and reach the destination at 1440 hours. It will then leave Melbourne at 0815 hours on 9 May to reach Colombo at 1430 hours the same day.

The Daily FT learns that owing to the COVID-19 pandemic an estimated 17,000 Sri Lankans were stranded in many parts of the world as of mid-April. That number has subsequently reduced with Sri Lankan Air lines bringing down hundreds of students from South Asia last week.