Sri Lanka's national carrier is suspending its domestic air service due to deteriorating security and a drop in foreign visitors, the airline's chief executive said Friday. SriLankan Airlines will operate the final domestic flight on Tuesday to the eastern town of Ampara leaving the island with no regular internal service.
The company had operated with two planes for just over three years. The military last month banned SriLankan Airlines from landing its eight-seater amphibious Single Otter aircraft in hydro reservoirs.
"This development (landing ban on water) together with the declining number of visitors to Sri Lanka, has meant that the Air Taxi is not sustainable in the foreseeable future," chief executive, Peter Hill, said.
The ban was part of measures by the authorities to deal with the new threat of air attacks by Tamil Tiger rebels who demonstrated their air capability in March by using light aircraft to bomb military and economic targets. Hill said the air-taxi service was popular among foreign tourists who used it to skip to a golf course and upmarket hill resorts.
Last month, Sri Lanka announced the closure of its only international airport where the check-in counters and the runway now shut for six hours from 10:00 pm (1730 GMT) local time. The number of holidaymakers visiting the island Lanka fell nearly 20 percent to 167,674 in the first four months of this year as fighting between troops and Tamil rebels escalated, according to tourism authority figures.