Russia’s detained Aeroflot plane in Sri Lanka leaves for Moscow, ending diplomatic spat

Russia's detained Aeroflot aircraft on Monday left Colombo for Moscow after a Sri Lankan court suspended a previous order, ending the diplomatic strain between the two countries over the plane of the Russian national flag carrier.

"The flight departed at 6 pm (local time) this evening", an airport official told reporters.

The Airbus A330-343 aircraft departed after the Colombo Commercial High Court considered a motion filed by the Sri Lankan Attorney General and suspended the previous order which had led to the detention of the Aeroflot aircraft.

Earlier, Russia had asked Sri Lanka to grant permission for the aircraft to leave for Moscow without any delay.

''Referring to the long-term friendly and constructive relations between Russia and Sri Lanka in various fields, including cooperation on civil aviation, head of the Federal Air Transport Agency Alexander Neradko, turned to the head of the aviation authorities of Sri Lanka with a request to grant permission for the aircraft to fly to the Russian Federation with the Russian crew members as soon as possible and without any delay,'' Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency had said in a statement on Friday.

On June 2, the court issued the order while fixing the case for June 16.

The Aeroflot aircraft, scheduled to depart from the Colombo airport to Moscow on June 2 with 191 passengers and 13 crew members, was not allowed as the owner of the aircraft -- Celestial Aviation of Ireland -- had filed a case against Aeroflot, pending arbitration on the lease of the aircraft in London.

Although the government here maintained that the dispute between the Aeroflot and Celestial Aviation was purely of a commercial nature which should be dealt with between the said two parties and no involvement of the state, the angry Russian government summoned the Sri Lankan Ambassador in Moscow for an explanation.

The flight owning company had pleaded in court that Aeroflot was told not to fly the aircraft after the lease agreement came to be terminated in March. However Aeroflot continued to fly it between Moscow and Colombo.

Russia cancelled Aeroflot flights to Sri Lanka and ordered the Russian tourists to return home.

Celestial Aviation Trading Limited, one of the largest plane-leasing firms, is seeking to confiscate the jet after Russia failed to return its property.

The European Union in February imposed a wide-array of economic sanctions on Russia, including banning the leasing of EU airplanes, after it invaded Ukraine.

The bloc's sanctions demanded Russia return any aircraft leased from EU firms by the end of March.

Leasing companies have confiscated 78 planes operated by Russian airlines since the sanctions were imposed.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)