Emirates Airways and Gulf Air announced Monday, September 17, they were suspending all their flights to Sri Lanka due to high war-risk insurance premiums. Emirates said in a statement that the suspension of its flights to Colombo from Wednesday until further notice was due to much higher premiums for every plane landing at Bandaranaike international airport.
Emirates belongs to the government of Dubai, one of the seven members of the United Arab Emirates, and holds 40 percent of the capital of SriLankan Airlines which it runs. Gulf Air, which belongs to Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, announced its "inevitable decision" to suspend direct flights to Colombo due to the high insurance premiums.
International insurance groups have substantially raised war-risk premiums for Sri Lanka following a devastating attack by Tamil guerrillas in July on the country's only international airport. ― (AFP, Dubai)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
