News
Missing bus to Mattala costs woman Rs. 15,000
View(s):A woman from Kirindiwela who had secured a job in a garment factory in Jordan had to hire a van at a cost of Rs.15,000 to travel to Mattala last Monday so that she could catch the Air Arabia flight from the new international airport there.
Piyuma Perera
Piyuma Gothami Perera, 42, was going through an employment agent to a garment factory in Jordan. Her agency told her she would have to board the flight from the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport. Departure was on the day the terminal was being inaugurated.
Air Arabia had arranged a shuttle bus from Colombo to Mattala but Mrs. Perera couldn’t catch it. So she arranged private transport with great difficulty, the cost being high. She had already spent much money to secure employment in Jordan.
Mrs. Perera left Kirindiwela at 3 a.m. that day. She joined 50 other clients of the same employment agency on the Air Arabia flight.
A spokesman for the agency said Air Arabia had offered special rates for passengers travelling out of Mattala that day. He said the airline would hereafter operate two flights from that airport.
“It would be most convenient for people from those areas,” he pointed out. “As for those going from Colombo to Mattala, there is a shuttle bus with food and drinks on board,” he said.
(Pictures by Indika Handuwela)
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