THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Four more international flights from Sri Lanka had a stopover at Thiruvananthapuram airport for refuelling on Friday. Of them, three flights, operated by SriLankan Airlines, then proceeded to Melbourne, Sydney and Paris, while the fourth, an AirArabia flight, left for Sharjah.
Since May 27, 204 flights from the crisis-hit island nation have made technical landing at Thiruvananthapuram airport owing to the scarcity of fuel back home. Most of the arriving flights are the ones operated by SriLankan Airlines, the official flag carrier of the neighbouring country. The stopovers have helped Thiruvananthapuram airport earn around `1.5 crore in landing fees alone. This excludes refuelling revenue.
Of the 204 flights that stopped at Thiruvananthapuram, 130 were SriLankan Airlines aircraft bound to destinations including Melbourne, Sydney, Paris and Frankfurt, 11 were Flydubai flights to Dubai, 45 were Air Arabia flights bound for Sharjah, nine Oman Air flights bound for Muscat, seven Gulf Air flights bound for Bahrain and one flight each of Emirates and Fits Voyage.
Sources said the airport is considering this as an opportunity to facilitate and help the struggling island nation. Recently, flights from Colombo started using Kochi airport for technical landings and refuelling too.