SriLankan Airlines Russian tours that were suspended due to an insurance coverage issue is set to resume flights between Sri Lanka and Russia soon, Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga said.

 The Minister also said that discussions are underway to implement an alternative insurance scheme for this purpose.

SriLankan Airlines direct flights from Colombo to Moscow has been suspended since  28 this month.

This was due to the decision taken by the British airline which has insured the aircraft of SriLankan Airlines to cancel the SriLankan aircraft insurance flying to Russia.

The Minister emphasized that this was not a decision taken by the Government of Sri Lanka and that the airline had to face a situation due to an incident out of the control of Sri Lankan Airlines.

He completely denayed the media and social media reports saying that the suspension of direct flights between Russia and Sri Lanka was due to pressure from the government and was a decision taken against Russia.

SriLankan Airlines launched direct flights between Sri Lanka and Russia on July 31 last year. Accordingly, two flights a week were operated between Colombo and Moscow.