Thiruvananthapuram,  With Sri Lanka reeling under its worst economic crisis, its national airline has begun refuelling at India's Thiruvananthapuram international airport.

Now owned by the Adani group, the airport since Sunday is seeing the SriLankan Airlines fly down for refuelling.

A few of their long haul flights to Australia and Europe have already availed the services according to sources, and more of their flights are expected in the coming days.

The average time taken to fly from Colombo to here is around 35 minutes and is the closest airport from there.

Sources said, the SriLankan Airline is preferring the Thiruvananthapuram airport than Chennai.

The sources said the fuel charges here when compared to Chennai airport are less and there are two fuel outlets owned by the central public sector which includes BPCL and Indian Oil.