Alliance Air’s flight from Chennai landed in Jaffna, Sri Lanka on the morning of Thursday, 17 October, marking a new beginning in the connectivity between the two countries. The water salute to the ATR aircraft was not just an honorary gesture. It also marked the resuming of flight services between Tamil Nadu and Jaffna after around 50 years.
The services between the south Indian state and Jaffna’s Palaly airport were suspended in the late 1970s just before the civil war broke out in the island nation. The airport was used as a strategic military base by the Sri Lankan armed forces to derive advantage over the now-defunct LTTE and to airdrop supplies to its own forces during the war.
Civilian flights resumed in Palaly airport from 2002. However, these services were domestic. On Thursday, the airport, renamed as Jaffna International Airport was thrown open to cater to international flights, with its first flight landing from Chennai, Tamil Nadu.