Air India has deferred the launch of its Mumbai-Colombo-Mumbai flight after the serial bomb blasts in the Sri Lankan capital on Sunday. The five-times a week non-stop flight was to be launched on May 1 using an Airbus aircraft.

In a communication to travel agents sent out on Wednesday, the state-owned airline said that in view of disruptions at Colombo, AI 275/276 Mumbai-Colombo Mumbai flight “stands cancelled” between May 1 and May 31. Over 350 people of various nationalities, including Indians, were killed in the blasts.

The airline’s daily connection between Delhi and Colombo continues to operate and on Thursday it was about 90 minutes late in leaving Delhi.

Sources in SpiceJet said that they will continue to operate their flights from Madurai and Chennai to Colombo adding that passenger load on these flights was doing okay. They declined to say how many passengers were travelling to Colombo.

Meanwhile, Indian carriers flying to Colombo have advised their passengers to report four hours early for check in. They have also advised passengers that all vehicles entering the airport in Colombo will be checked in front of the cargo terminal and that all passenger vehicles will be stopped at the outer lane. The passengers will have to walk to the entrance to the terminal as no vehicles will be allowed near the terminal. Passengers have also been told that the Air Force will do a positive manual check of all bags of all departing passengers at the check point before the entrance. The Colombo airport has also closed its terminal car and coach park.

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