25 April 2020 04:01 pm
A special SriLankan Airlines flight UL 144 carrying 163 Sri Lankans stranded in Mumbai, India, due to COVID- 19, arrived at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA), Katunayake this afternoon.
Earlier, the SriLankan Airlines said it decided to operate special flights from India’s Amritsar, Coimbatore, Pakistan’s Karachi, Lahore and Nepal’s Kathmandu to bring home 433 Sri Lankan students who had been stranded overseas due to the prevailing travel restrictions imposed in view of the COVID 19 pandemic.
A SriLankan plane carrying 113 Sri Lankan students from Lahore and Karachi, Pakistan arrived at the BIA on April 21 as the first batch.
These special flights are being operated as part of Sri Lankan government’s programme to bring back Sri Lankan students stranded in foreign countries and are being carried out in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, SriLankan Airlines said.