Colombo Ratmalana International Airport
Colombo Ratmalana International Airport
Ratmalana International Airport (Sinhala: ??????? ?????????? ???????????, romanised: Ratmal?na J?tyantara Guvanto?upa?a; Tamil: ????????? ??????? ????? ???????, romanised: Iratmal??ai Sarvadesa Vim??a Nilaiyam) (officially known as Colombo International Airport, Ratmalana and locally as Ratmalana Airport) (IATA: RML, ICAO: VCCC), is the secondary international airport serving the city of Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. It was the country's first international airport and was the only international airport in Sri Lanka until the inauguration of Bandaranaike International Airport, Katunayake, in 1967. The airport currently serves several domestic services and is home to several aviation training organisations. A relaxation of rules has recently seen the airport open for international corporate jet operations and charter flights. The airport is located 15 km south of Colombo. The strategic significance of Ratmalana International Airport has been identified along with the emerging Colombo Financial City, High End Tourism and business travel needs of High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs). The long-term strategic goal of RMA is to bring the airport to the optimum operational capacity by maximum utilisation of existing resources. Therefore, to achieve this goal, five strategic areas with specific strategies have been identified as Corporate Jet Operations, Domestic Aviation Hub, Aviation Training hub in the Region, FBO & MRO investments and Regional Airports Operations.
Location
6.822°N, 79.886°E · 7 m s. n. m. (22 ft)
General data
Runways · 1
Lengths and surfaces from the public OurAirports register; open runways only.
Radio frequencies · 3
Tower
Approach
Flight information
Reference frequencies for enthusiasts, from OurAirports (community database, public domain), checked on Oct 16, 2026. They may be outdated or incomplete and do not replace the AIP or current charts: not for navigation. In Europe the published frequency may be an 8.33 kHz channel (e.g., 118.505 for 118.500). In MHz.
History
Launch
In 1934, the State Council of Ceylon 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 Captain Tyndale-Biscoe, chief flying instructor of the Madras Flying Club, was the first aircraft to land at the new airport.
Second World War
During the Second World War, it was used as a Royal Air Force airfield, with No 30 Squadron flying Hawker Hurricanes from there against Japanese Navy aircraft. QEA (Qantas Empire Airways Limited) 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-fuelling stop at the Cocos Islands.
The following units were here at some point:
Peak of civilian service
Ratmalana airport at one time had the country's main air 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. The airport was also a Trans World Airlines (TWA) destination for a short time in the 1950s.
Domestic-only era
In 1964, the government decided to build the new Bandaranaike International Airport north of the city, to replace Ratmalana. The new airport was completed in 1967 and Ratmalana handed over all international services to the new airport. Ratmalana was left with the relatively small market for domestic air travel in the country.
Return to international service
As of 27 March 2022, the airport resumed international travel after 55 years.
Airlines operating here · 3
Other airlines with direct routes
Airlines with current passenger routes from here, according to Wikipedia route tables cross-checked from both ends (October 2026).
Photo: ColomboAirportRatmalana · CC BY-SA 4.0 · view original
Data from OurAirports (public domain) · destinations and airlines from Wikipedia route tables (CC BY-SA, 2026), unless another source is given · profile and photo from Wikidata/Wikimedia Commons (CC0 / CC) · summary and history from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).
Cite
To cite this page in academic work, an article or Wikipedia, choose the style and copy the reference. The access date is today.
This page was last updated on October 15, 2026
APA
Vuelopedia. (2026, October 15). Colombo Ratmalana International Airport (RML). Retrieved October 24, 2026, from https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/RML
MLA
“Colombo Ratmalana International Airport (RML).” Vuelopedia, Fundación Poderia, 15 Oct. 2026, vuelopedia.org/en/airport/RML. Accessed 24 Oct. 2026.
Chicago
Vuelopedia. “Colombo Ratmalana International Airport (RML).” Fundación Poderia. Last modified October 15, 2026. https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/RML.
Harvard
Vuelopedia (2026) Colombo Ratmalana International Airport (RML). Available at: https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/RML (Accessed: 24 October 2026).
BibTeX
@misc{vuelopedia_en_airport_rml,
author = {{Vuelopedia}},
title = {{Colombo Ratmalana International Airport (RML)}},
publisher = {Fundación Poderia},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-10-15},
url = {https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/RML},
howpublished = {\url{https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/RML}},
urldate = {2026-10-24},
note = {Accessed 2026-10-24}
}Wikipedia
{{cite web |url=https://vuelopedia.org/en/airport/RML |title=Colombo Ratmalana International Airport (RML) |website=Vuelopedia |publisher=Fundación Poderia |date=2026-10-15 |access-date=2026-10-24 |language=en}}