Ratmalana Airport

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Ratmalana Airport
IATA: RML - ICAO: VCCC
Summary
Airport type		public/commercial/military
Operator		Airports and Aviation Services Ltd
Serves		Colombo, Sri Lanka
Elevation AMSL		16 ft (5 m)
Coordinates		6°49′19.18″N, 79°53′10.35″E
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
	ft	m
4/22	6,013	1833	Asphalt

Ratmalana Airport (IATA: RML, ICAO: VCCC) was originally the international airport for Colombo, Sri Lanka. It is now used for domestic flights and for military purposes.

In 1934 the State Council of Ceylon (as it then was) made a decision to construct an aerodrome within reach of the capital city of Colombo and decided on Ratmalana as the best site. On 27 November 1935 a de Havilland Puss Moth flown by Tyndalle Bisco, Chief flying instructor of the Madras Flying Club, was the first aircraft to land at the new airport.

During the Second World War it was used as an Royal Air Force base, with No 30 Squadron flying Hawker Hurricanes from there against Japanese Navy aircraft. QEA flew civilianised Consolidated B-24 Liberator and Avro Lancastrian aeroplanes there from Perth, Western Australia, on what was at the time the world's longest non-stop air route. The flight continued after the war with an intermediate re-fueling stop at the Cocos Islands.

Ratmalana airport at one time had the country's main terminal, with the Douglas DC-3 Dakota and Lockheed Constellation aeroplanes of Air Ceylon flying out of it. In 1947, KLM flew Douglas DC-4 Skymasters through the airport on the route from the Netherlands to the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). In the 1950s, BOAC flew Canadair Argonauts (DC4 with Rolls Royce Merlin engines) from Ratmalana to London. On 11 August 1952, 3 months after the inaugural service of a passenger jet aircraft, BOAC began its Comet service between Colombo and London. Later (March 1962 - March 1971) Air Ceylon operated a Comet service on this route to London.

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