The Sri Lankan government is negotiating a food for flight rights swap with Russia, with reports in the Russian media suggesting Sri Lanka has guaranteed that Russian aircraft can move freely in and out of the country in exchange for food and fertiliser shipments from Russia.
Sri Lanka's transport minister, Bandula Gunawardana, told RIA Novosti that his government had assured the Russian authorities that no Russian-flagged aircraft (or ship) will be "arrested" there. This follows an incident in June 2022 when an Aeroflot (SU, Moscow Sheremetyevo) A330-300 was briefly grounded at Colombo International Airport in response to a dispute between the airline and AerCap-owned lessor Celestial Aviation Trading. That caused a diplomatic incident and led to Aeroflot suspending flights to Sri Lanka for four months.
"There will be no risk of arrests in the future," Gunawardana pledged.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's ambassador to Moscow has confirmed he is talking to the Russian government about importing food and fertiliser from that country. While denying that there was a food shortage in Sri Lanka, Ambassador Janitha Abeywickrema Liyanage told the TASS news agency that "discussions are going on."
Sri Lanka is one of several South Asian and Southeast Asian countries competing for Russian tourists. According to ch-aviation capacities data, three carriers fly the Sri Lanka-Russia country pair, including Aeroflot on the Moscow Sheremetyevo-Colombo sector; Azur Air on Novosibirsk-Colombo, Samara Kurumoch-Colombo, and Tyumen Roschino-Colombo, and Red Wings Airlines on Moscow Domodedovo-Hambantota and Zhukovsky-Hambantota.
