Flight repatriating Sri Lankans from Qatar cancelled

The special flight scheduled to bring back stranded Sri Lankans from Qatar tomorrow morning (May 26) has been canceled.

A SriLankan Airlines charter flight was previously scheduled to leave the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) at 5.45 am tomorrow to repatriate 273 Sri Lankans from Doha, Qatar.

This is in the backdrop of 70 among 466 individuals who were repatriated from Kuwait on May 19 have tested positive for COVID-19. Further, one of the returnees succumbed to the virus earlier this evening (25) marking Sri Lanka’s 10th death from the disease.

A large number of airport workers, health service personnel, and military personnel who had provided the necessary service for the group which arrived from Kuwait on May 19 at the BIA, were subjected to PCR testing yesterday (24).

Meanwhile, a Sri Lankan who had been unable to return to the island from South Africa arrived in Sri Lanka last evening through an Emirates flight from Dubai. He, a technical officer of the Emirates Airlines had visited South Africa for a training program.