BIA immigration officers call off strike

Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) operations returned to normal about an hour back (at 3 pm on Friday) following the intervention of Minister S.B. Navinna after passengers missed flights and some flights got delayed to take-off by about 30 minutes.
The Minister had assured the striking immigration officials that he would submit a cabinet paper next Tuesday, thereby adhering to their requests.
As a result, Airport and Aviation officials at the BIA said that the services were back to normal and noted that they faced problems during the work to rule period with flights and passengers getting delayed.
As of Thursday the issues of the striking officials had not been resolved as a result the immigration staff at the sea and airports had decided to carry out a work to rule campaign and thereby caused delays since they had been slow at work.
Airlines however ensured that those passengers that missed their flights would be able to take a later flight or be able to reschedule on other flights.
The BIA had to contend with a number of inconveniences due to the work to rule with congestion at the airport and long queues resulting in delays. (SD)