Tourism authorities insist no tourists

• Indians not allowed to disembark but allowed to transit
• Air India flight AI275 from Mumbai, SriLankan Airlines flight UL126 from Chennai and IndiGo Airlines flight 6E8481 reported to have landed at BIA

 By Easwaran Rutnam   

A number of flights from India landed at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) over the past few days amidst a ban on travellers from India.   However, officials insisted that the flights were either cargo flights or flights in transit.    

Flight Radar showed a number of SriLankan Airlines, IndiGo Airlines and Air India flights had landed at the BIA over the past several days. IndiGo Airlines flight 6E8481 from Chennai and SriLankan Airlines flight UL144 from Mumbai are among the flights to land at the BIA on Friday.   

Air India flight AI275 from Mumbai, SriLankan Airlines flight UL126 from Chennai and IndiGo Airlines flight 6E8481 are among the flights which landed at the BIA on Saturday. IndiGo Airlines flight 6E8485 from Bangalore was among the flights which landed at the BIA yesterday (Sunday).

   
When contact by Daily Mirror, officials at the Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority insisted that Indians are not allowed into the country. Meanwhile, an official at the Tourism Ministry said that cargo flights from India are permitted to land at the BIA. The official also said that while flights on transit from India can land at the BIA, no passenger can disembark.   

Sri Lanka is on alert for an Indian variant of the coronavirus, identified as B.1.617.