Russian carrier Azur Air has decided to resume direct flights between Russia and Sri Lanka, with services planned to recommence in November, Ada Derana reported.
The airline is expected to operate to Sri Lanka from five airports in Russia. Ada Derana did not name them.
Two more Russian carriers are lined up behind it: Aeroflot and S7 Airlines are both scheduled to launch direct Russia–Sri Lanka services, according to the same report, which gave no dates for either.
Update, September 7: the Daily Mirror fills in the schedule — and counts eight cities, not five
A Daily Mirror report published the same evening, citing Russian Travel Digest, supplies most of what Ada Derana omitted — and differs from it on the size of the network.
Azur Air, which is affiliated with tour operator Anex Tour, is scheduled to restart flights on 2 November 2026 for the 2026/2027 winter season, after a one-year break. The Daily Mirror puts the network at eight Russian cities, not five: Moscow, Samara, Tyumen, Kazan, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Mineralnye Vody and Ufa. Neither outlet flags the discrepancy, and Ada Derana named none of its five.
The flights will use Boeing 767-300 aircraft into Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport in Hambantota — the question Ada Derana left open. Moscow gets the heaviest service at three flights every 12 days, Yekaterinburg two per 12-day cycle, and the remaining six cities one each per cycle. The Daily Mirror notes the initial schedules are subject to change.
The two carriers behind Azur Air are going to a different airport: Aeroflot and S7 have announced flights to Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo.
Mattala’s selection is significant for an airport the government has been marketing to global investors through an expressions-of-interest process. Charter traffic from Russian regional cities is close to the only sustained international demand the airport has carried.
British Airways back after 11 years
Separately, British Airways is set to resume direct flights between the United Kingdom and Sri Lanka next month, after an 11-year hiatus. Ada Derana reports the airline is scheduled to begin London Gatwick–Colombo services on October 23.
That part of the announcement is not new. British Airways set out the Colombo return in a winter 2026 route expansion published in March, when it confirmed the same October 23 start date for a thrice-weekly Gatwick service. The carrier last served Colombo in the mid-2010s, which is where the eleven-year figure comes from.
Why it matters
Both routes feed the same channel. Russia and the United Kingdom are among Sri Lanka’s larger long-haul source markets, and direct capacity has been the binding constraint on both since the pandemic and the 2022 crisis. Arrivals passed 1.5 million for the year in late August, and the northern winter — November to March — is the peak season these services are timed for.
The wider picture for the sector this year has been less settled. Regional conflict pushed airfares up around 25% at one point as carriers rerouted, and British Airways itself has been cutting Middle East flying and shifting capacity toward India. A Colombo restart runs against that trend.
Not reported
Ada Derana did not name the five Russian airports, give a start date, frequency or aircraft type for Azur Air, or say which Sri Lankan airport the flights will use. The Daily Mirror’s September 7 report answers all of those except the reason for the suspension, and it names eight cities where Ada Derana counted five — a discrepancy neither outlet addresses.
Still open: why Azur Air suspended the route for a year, and whether the five-versus-eight split reflects a revised schedule or an error in one of the reports. No dates, routes or frequencies have been given for Aeroflot or S7 beyond the airport they will use, and no confirmation has been attributed to either airline. Neither report quotes Azur Air directly — Ada Derana attributed the announcement to the airline without a named source, and the Daily Mirror relayed it from Russian Travel Digest.
For British Airways, neither report gave frequency, aircraft type or fare information, or said what Sri Lankan authorities or the airport operator expect the route to add in seat capacity.
Neither Sri Lankan civil aviation authorities, the Airport and Aviation Services company nor the Tourism Development Authority has been quoted, and no comment has been reported on what the Mattala allocation means for that airport.
