Carriers forced to fill up overseas.
Sri Lanka is asking airlines to carry enough jet fuel to last return trips or fill up elsewhere, as the country grapples with a shortage of everything from fuel to medicine to food.
“We’ve asked airlines to carry the required fuel while operating to Sri Lanka, because there is a shortage of aviation fuel, and we have to manage the situation,” Rayhan Wanniappa, a director of Sri Lanka’s Civil Aviation Authority, said in a phone interview Monday.
“Airlines are bringing certain additional supplies, while we are also providing from our stocks.”
According to reports, Dubai-based carrier Emirates is carrying more fuel than required, while Sri Lankan Airlines is using the Southern Indian city of Chennai to refuel for long-haul flights.
Singapore Airlines is uplifting additional fuel on flights destined for Colombo due to the shortage, a representative said in an email.
The island nation has been trying to find the cash to pay for oil that’s been sitting on tankers off its coast as its fuel crunch persists.
“There’s been no effect in airport and airline operations,” said G.A. Chandrasiri, chairman of the Airport and Aviation Services, that operates the main airport in Colombo. “This is just a preventive measure.”
Sri Lanka’s financial crisis, its worst since independence, is swiftly becoming an alarming health crisis.
The government’s coffers have fallen to their lowest levels on record and last week the country was forced to default on its international loans for the first time in its history.
“Ultimately, people are definitely going to die,” said a doctor in Colombo who had been told not to speak to the media.
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