Beijing and Shanghai-bound SriLankan Airlines flights will be diverted from the Bandaranaike International Airport to the Mattala Airport starting Friday for two-and-a-half hours before continuing to China.
This situation is due to scheduling problems resulting from the closure of the BIA runway from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. from this week.
“Our flight to Beijing normally goes at noon, but since the runway will be closed, we have changed it to 7:35 a.m. The flight will go to Mattala and then to Beijing, and this arrangement will continue until April 6,” SriLankan Airlines spokesman Deepal Perera said. The flight to Shanghai will leave
Colombo at 7:25 a.m. “The Shanghai and Beijing airports are unable to accommodate our changed flight times, so we have no alternative but to divert the flights to Mattala for two-and-a-half hours,” he added. Flights from Beijing and Shanghai to Colombo will not be diverted to Mattala and will arrive at BIA as scheduled.
Only flights to China will be diverted to Mattala, as other airports were able to accommodate Sri Lankan Airlines’ altered flight times.