Aeroflot: Bandula apologizes for arresting flight

by Amani Nilar 17-09-2022 | 4:44 PM

COLOMBO (News 1st) - Minister of Transport Bandula Gunawardena in an interview to Ria Novosti, Russian media, hsa apologized for the arrest of a Russian Aircraft in June.

In an interview, the Minister said that it "was a terrible mistake" and that Sri Lankan authorities apologize for what happened.

Speaking further, the Minister said that Unfortunately, an error with the Russian aircraft of the company "Aeroflot" led to the flight being arrested by a Court order.

However, he said thayt now this problem has been solved, and the President, the Prime Minister and the entire Government of Sri Lanka guarantees that this will never happen again.

"We don't want to arrest any planes in Sri Lanka." the Minister said.

Although attempts were made, the Minister was not immediately available for a comment on the matter.

In June, the Aeroflot A330 (SU289) was grounded in Colombo following a court order obtained by Celestial Aviation Trading 10 Limited of Ireland, the owner of the aircraft, against Aeroflot in a Colombo court, over a lease dispute.

However. the Commercial High Court of Colombo reversed its own decision of June 2nd of this year, on the detention of an Aeroflot flight at Bandaranaike International Airport.

The Airbus A330-343 operated by Russian state-owned airline Aeroflot was denied permission to fly to Moscow as scheduled on June 2nd amid a legal dispute with a leasing company. The flight had more than 200 passengers onboard.

Celestial Aviation Trading Limited, one of the largest plane-leasing firms, was seeking to confiscate the jet after Russia failed to return its property.

The European Union in February imposed a wide-array of economic sanctions on Russia, including banning the leasing of EU airplanes, after it invaded Ukraine.

The bloc’s sanctions demanded Russia return any aircraft leased from EU firms by the end of March.

Leasing companies have confiscated 78 planes operated by Russian airlines since the sanctions were imposed, though nearly all occurred within the first few days.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry had demanded Sri Lanka resolve the situation, warning it could hurt bilateral relations, and subsequently, the matter was resolved by the Sri Lankan Government.