Sri Lanka, April 22 -- Rising jet fuel costs are taking a heavy toll on Sri Lanka's aviation sector, prompting the cancellation of 29 China-bound flights scheduled for May.

China Eastern, which operates daily Colombo-Shanghai services, has informed authorities that it will cancel 19 flights next month as it is unable to cope with sharply higher jet fuel prices.

"We were paying around Chinese RMB 300,000 per flight as fuel costs in Colombo in February, and in March this shot up by a staggering 211%," airline sources said.

"We have raised this serious matter with relevant stakeholders, including the Ministry of Tourism and Aviation, but have not received any positive response."

"Since the airline cannot increase fares to match this 211%...