SriLankan gets ‘no fly’ warning over conflict zones

SriLankan Airlines has been advised to steer clear of conflict zones when flying to Europe via West Asian destinations as per international regulations, a top government official said on Friday.In this respect the national carrier would not fly across the air space of countries currently in conflict due to the risk involved in doing so, Civil Aviation Director General H.M.C. Nimalsiri told the Business Times at his office in Colombo.
“SriLankan Airlines policy is that we always avoid any conflict zones,” SriLankan Airlines spokesman Deepal Perera said when asked to comment.

He said that they had stopped flying over Ukraine since March 2014 and now continue to avoid flying over countries currently in conflict like Syria, Iraq and similar states.Meanwhile Mr. Nimalsiri, commenting on the attacks recently purported to have been carried out by the Islamic militant group ISIS in Paris, France, said that since they had limited information they were not certain of how to react to the this in view of flights to this destination.He noted that currently there is a high security threat and that last week the National Civil Aviation Security Committee headed by Defence Ministry Secretary Karunasena Hettiarachchi met with the Police and the Commanders of the three defence forces.

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