Sri Lanka: Protest over pay at Colombo Airport April 3

Event

Workers at Colombo's Bandaranaike-Katunayake International Airport (CMB), Sri Lanka's main airport, held a protest on Tuesday, April 3, blocking passenger access to a part of the departure area. The protest by employees of Airport and Aviation Services are demanding a salary hike. Some union officials had threaten to organized a strike by all airport staff, including air traffic controllers, unless demands were immediately met. As of 13:30 (local time) aviation operations were operating as normal.

Context

Security has been reinforced at CMB, with riot police and Special Task Force (STF) agents on site and in the vicinity.

Advice

Passengers traveling via CMB on Tuesday are advised to confirm flight statuses, avoid all protests, monitor the situation, and adhere to all instructions issued by the local authorities.