Union Cabinet has granted ex-post facto dispensation to Alliance Air, a 100% subsidiary of Air India, to fly on international sectors between India and Sri Lanka. A special dispensation is allowed for the interim period till Alliance Air deploys minimum of 20 Aircraft or 20% of total capacity, whichever is higher for domestic operations.

India has close bilateral ties with Sri Lanka and its interest is to increase connectivity and to expand people to people contacts between the two countries. Prior to this approval, there was no commercial operation scheduled from Palaly and Batticaloa airports.