Air passengers stranded in several countries by Colombo attack

Hundreds of passengers were stranded in Dubai yesterday after Sri Lanka's only international airport was closed by a predawn attack by Tamil Tiger militants. SriLankan Airlines flight UL506 from London to Colombo was diverted to Dubai early in the morning and more than 300 passengers were put up at hotels here.

Two SriLankan flights which had left the UAE for Colombo had to be diverted to airports in India. Flight UL556 from Dubai landed in Chennai with 280 passengers, and more than 200 passengers on flight UL210 from Abu Dhabi were diverted to Trivandrum.

Emirates, which owns a 40 per cent stake and fully manages SriLankan, had to reschedule two flights to Colombo. Flight EK076 to Singapore via Colombo overflew Sri Lanka and continued to its final destination, and flight EK814 to Colombo via Male terminated in the Maldives capital.

A spokeswoman said staff at Emirates offices in Europe and Asia were put on standby to handle inquiries and reassure those concerned about friends and relatives booked on its flights to and from Colombo.

"No Emirates aircraft, passengers or staff were present at the airport when the attack took place," she said. "All Emirates passengers on vacation in Sri Lanka are safe and well and arrangements to repatriate them will be made as soon as possible."

All flights to Colombo's Bandaranaike International Airport were cancelled yesterday, including a SriLankan flight scheduled to leave Dubai at 9.05pm. Emirates, which cancelled its 2.50am flight today, said it would not fly to Colombo until Friday at the earliest.

"Emirates will resume operations into Colombo airport with flight EK076 from Dubai on Friday," the spokeswoman said. "This is conditional on an uninterupted state of normality continuing until then."

SriLankan Airline's UAE manager Kumar de Silva said, "All our flights have been cancelled until further notice." Most of the passengers diverted to Dubai on the flight from London were put up at the Renaissance, Metropolitan, Meridien, Gulf Inn and Versailles hotels.

"A small percentage had connecting flights to other destinations and we arranged for them to take direct flights from Dubai with other airlines," De Silva said. Among those stranded are Dr. Peter Furness, his wife Sarah and their 13-year-old daughter Felicity who were travelling to Sri Lanka for a two-week holiday.

"We were 45 minutes' flying time ahead of Dubai when the captain announced that he was re-routing the plane to Dubai," Sarah said. "The Sri Lankan aviation authorities had asked all incoming flights to re-route to nearby cities and that is when we came to know what had happened at Colombo airport."

The Briton said her family had not been to Sri Lanka before but were still looking forward to the trip when flights resume despite the terrorist attack. "We will be a little worried, and probably a little bit cautious, but I am sure things should be okay by the time we proceed to Colombo."

Her daughter, Felicity, said, "I am sure they will only take us to Colombo once they get clearance from there, but I am still looking forward to seeing the countryside in Sri Lanka."

Meanwhile, the dreams of more than 100 Sri Lankans from Abu Dhabi of a peaceful holiday back home were rudely disrupted. Instead they found themselves stranded in an Indian city indefinitely.

According to SriLankan's Abu Dhabi Station Manager Lalithra Pallegagamota, flight UL210, which took off from Abu Dhabi at 9:30pm on Monday for Colombo via Muscat, was forced to divert to Trivandrum in Kerala.

"The 114 passengers from Abu Dhabi and about 80 from Muscat, who were heading for Colombo, Chennai and Jakarta, will be stranded in Trivandrum until things improve in Sri Lanka and alternative arrangements are made."

The airline has flights between Abu Dhabi and Colombo on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. He added future flight operations from Abu Dhabi could be affected due to a shortage of planes.

Pallegagamota cast doubt on today's flight from Abu Dhabi to Colombo. He said, "Let's wait and see if there's any flight." Meanwhile, a spokesperson at the Sri Lankan Embassy said Rathmalana Domestic airport near Colombo could be used to fly out international passengers.

She said, "Most of the Sri Lankans in the UAE must have already left for home to spend their holidays, but the problem is for those who have to return immediately to report for work here." She said there are nearly 125,000 Sri Lankans living in the UAE including 30,000 in Abu Dhabi.