Nine Russian tourists were left stranded at Moscow Domodedovo Airport on their day of departure after discovering that their flight to Sri Lanka was for a route the airline had stopped operating six months earlier.
The travelers had booked their tickets on the travel website trip.com for an Air Arabia flight scheduled for early August 2026. However, when they arrived at the airport, the flight was missing from the departure board, Russian Telegram news channel Baza reported.
Three friends in the group had started planning the vacation to Sri Lanka in November 2025. According to the passengers, their reservations were confirmed immediately by the booking platform at the time of purchase.
It was only upon arriving at Domodedovo Airport on the scheduled departure date that the passengers learned Air Arabia had not operated flights on the Sri Lanka route for half a year.
Struggles at the airport
Following the discovery, the passengers spent 11 hours at the airport attempting to contact customer service representatives from Air Arabia, an airline representative, and trip.com.
The booking aggregator eventually offered to cancel the original tickets and issue a travel voucher that the passengers could use until October 1, 2026.
Unwilling to lose their long-planned summer vacation, the group of friends chose to buy new tickets to Turkey instead. They decided to address the dispute over their Sri Lanka ticket bookings after returning from their trip.
Travel context and airport issues
Air Arabia is a low-cost carrier headquartered in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, while trip.com operates as an international online travel agency offering flight and hotel bookings. Domodedovo Airport is one of the main international aviation hubs serving Moscow.
The incident follows recent travel disruptions for Russian holidaymakers heading abroad. Previously, Russian tourists arriving in Turkey were left without their luggage due to processing failures at Moscow Vnukovo Airport.
