Features

Ratmalana airport’s operations and unplanned development

Published

5 years ago

2020/12/22

Wellington Airport, New Zealand, Control Tower, in a shopping Mall

By Capt G A Fernando MBA
gafplane@sltnet.lk
President, Aircraft Owners and Operators Association
RCyAF, Air Ceylon, Air Lanka, SIA, SriLankan Airlines

In 1934 the State Council of Ceylon decided that an airport with easy access to Colombo was a necessity and declared that Ratmalana was the best site available. Accordingly an airfield was built and the first landing took place on 27 November 1935. This was Ceylon’s first Airfield. With the advent of WW II, the airport expanded and a runway was also built. The Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm used it.

To assist aircraft landing in bad weather and resulting bad visibility, a transmitter was built at Thalangama to generate a Radio Signal Beam directed along the extended centre line of the runway at Ratmalana. If the aircraft was tracking the correct path, the pilots would hear a continuous tone on their head sets. However if they were left of the desired track, the pilots would hear a letter ‘A’ in Morse code (dit dah) or if right, a letter ‘N’ which was a (dah dit) in Morse. The objective was to hear a continuous signal in the ears, which guided them towards Ratmalana. The decent to lower altitude was at the pilot’s discretion.

As time went by, there was a low frequency, Non Directional Radio Beacon (NDB) placed in the vicinity of the airport (Attidiya) and used with an Automatic Direction Finder (ADF) on board the aircraft. A needle over a compass dial pointed to Attidiya and gave directional guidance to international air traffic. Although it could accommodate an unlimited number of aircraft, when they needed it most like during thunderstorms activity, there was static interference and the needles pointed towards the thunderstorms instead of Attidiya. So a Very High Frequency Omni Directional Radio Range known as a ‘VOR’ for short was installed for more accuracy.

Then in 1968, Ratmalana International Airport lost its ‘International’ status when the Bandaranaike International Airport opened and all international operations moved to Katunayake. The equipment at the airport was allowed to deteriorate. The Radio Navigational let down aids ran down. There was no proper Control Tower. Even the runway lights were not working and night flights had to depend on Kerosene Lamps. One redeeming grace, in the night, in those days, was that the Sapugaskanda Oil Refinery was in full production and the giant flare of the burning gasses was the guiding light to the Ratmalana Airport. The Pilots spotted the flare from far away and flew over the Refinery and then turned on the runway heading and could see the runway edge kerosene flares, flickering dimly in a dark patch that was the Ratmalana airport! The civil training aircraft of the Government Flying School of those days had neither radios nor any radio aids to navigation.

Post 1977, after the ‘Dharmista’ Government created another problem for Ratmalana operations. The authorities decided to build a new Capital in Sri Jayewardenepura, Kotte, and also move the New Parliament to that neck of the woods. Unfortunately, the Parliament was just 3.6 Nautical Miles from the end of the Ratmalana runway ‘as the crow flies’ and less than 1NM from the Thalangama Transmitters. In most countries overflying the Parliament is prohibited. Therefore the Authorities blindly decreed the same in Sri Lanka. Thus restricting the freedom of aircraft movements to the Ratmalana Runway and preventing safer, conventional landing approaches. It must be noted that Air Ceylon and other domestic flights were still using Ratmalana. Many professionals were quick to observe that it was akin to someone building a house near a railway line and then complaining that it was too noisy and requiring the railway to divert!

Everyone had learnt to live with the non-availability of precision Navigational aids at Ratmalana. Thalangama Transmitters lost its significance. The Urban Development Authority (UDA) eventually, took vacant procession and the SL Army (Gemunu watch) established a camp there. During December, with clear nights and cooler mornings, (Temperature inversions) combined with the North Easterly winds blowing smoke from the Sapugaskanda Refinery, the visibility on the final approach tends to get very bad at the Ratmalana airport.

In fact, on the morning of 14 December 2014, a SLAF Antonov AN 32, ferry flight from Katunayake, attempted to approach for landing at Ratmalana and crashed killing the crew. This prompted the then Air Force Commander to write to the then Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to reinstall Navigational Facilities (See Letter below). Now almost five years have gone by and at last the Airport and Aviation Sri Lanka (AASL) is slowly waking up to the fact that not only the seen but also the unseen facilities at Ratmalana should be brought up to standard in the name of air safety. Wide publicity is given to the fact that the Government’s intention is to make Ratmalana an International Business aircraft hub and regain its lost glory.

While this concept is being actively pursued by the Airport and Aviation Sri Lanka Ltd (AASL) and the Civil Aviation Authority Sri Lanka (CAASL), another security sensitive building has been erected in the vacant land at Thalangama, barely 1 NM from the Parliament and 4.4 NM from the runway end. That being the Akuregoda Military Headquarters. This has created an effective barrier for operation of legitimate air traffic. As a direct result more restrictions are bound to be imposed on inbound air traffic. Furthermore, it does seem like that there was no ‘master plan’ and the left hand didn’t know what the right hand was doing.

Air safety dictates that jet planes should have at least an eight mile straight in (no turns) final approach. Now it is not possible to do that with the unplanned sensitive buildings on the final approach to Ratmalana. Ideally, like in other countries, all three parties, the Local Municipality Town Planer, the Civil Aviation Authority/ Airport and Aviation Ltd (CAASL/ AASL), and the Building developer, must make these long term decisions. In Australia for instance the CAA’ Airports Authority has control of manmade obstacles for a radius of 25 miles. Unplanned buildings, called ‘man made relief’ as against ‘Geographic Relief’ (terrain) has spoilt the feasibility of the intended City Airport. Another case in point is the Kotalawala Defence University (K DU). Which is the tallest building in the vicinity of the airport that should never have been allowed to be built that high. This seems to be the malady this whole country is suffering from. The people in the know are afraid to speak. Subsequently, no one is held accountable for these poor, uncoordinated decisions. The true professionals are not consulted. As a result vision is ‘tunnelled’. The Sinhala saying “Leda malath, bada suddai” seems to be very appropriate. (Although the patient died, the bowels were clean!)

It is believed that accommodating Business Jets inbound to Ratmalana airport will be a money spinner and a step in the correct direction. There is no point in crying over spilt milk one would say. What is done is done. I write to offer a practical solution.to mitigate the adverse effects of unplanned buildings. While the Military Base is working 24/7 (around the clock) and overflying prohibition may be justified, the Parliament ‘works’ only on certain days and for limited hours. The Authorities should provisionally allow air traffic, inbound to Ratmalana to overfly the Parliament on days and times that there are no sittings. A Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) could be issued as and when necessary. In other words let’s share the airspace for the benefit of all, without attempting to kill the goose that may lay the golden egg. Then longer and therefore safer approaches could be designed to facilitate these small but fast Business Jets which will be operating in and out of the Ratmalana Airport.

The Ratmalana Airport lacks a proper Control Tower with a 360 degree visibility of the area. A new Control Tower could be sited in the highest point in the vicinity. Perhaps at KDU to mitigate the hopeless situation. The Wellington, New Zealand Control Tower is on top of a Shopping Mall!

To put this in the correct perspective, according to the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) USA, research shows that light training aircraft and other small aircraft of the size and mass of business jets cannot create catastrophic destruction to strong buildings like our Parliament or the Military Base, like what happened on 9/11 with large passenger jets. Some even say that the Pentagon was damaged by a missile and not a passenger aircraft. But that’s another story.

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Features

Proactive peacemaking becomes a paramount need

Published

22 hours ago

2026/06/4

Sahan Weerasooriya

Wasting wars: Some war-displaced people in Lebanon. BBC

It may be some time before the full impact of food inflation is felt in the West. Until such time the world would continue to keep itself in suspense over whether the Trump administration is in earnest when it seeks to convey the impression that it is backing a negotiated solution in West Asia.

As is usually the case, consumer stress would be one of the final determinants of political change. To the degree to which the average US consumer somehow ‘muddles through’ and puts the food on the table, to the same extent would the Republican sections of the US public in particular be tolerant of the Trump administration’s inconsistent handling of the West Asian war and the main issues stemming from it. That is, there would be no grave popular disaffection and a demand for political change in the short term.

However, the indications are that the Trump administration’s support base is suffering some erosion in the wake of the current economic crisis. While reports indicate that Democratic sections are firming-up their opposition to the political centre, Republican support for Trump is also showing signs of waning, we are given to understand.

The above developments are probably why Trump is on record as having given Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a ‘dressing down’ recently on his seeming intransigence on the question of giving negotiations a chance in West Asia. The show of displeasure could be really aimed by Trump at containing the impatience of the American public.

However, the current ground situation in the Middle East, particularly the uncontained bloodshed, is likely to impress on the thinking sections of the world that more than temporary political change is needed in West Asia and the US.

A well thought out political solution that addresses all the contentious issues at the heart of the Middle East conflict is what enlightened opinion would demand, and very rightly. Right now, the ‘peace efforts’ initiated by the Trump administration give the impression of being piecemeal solutions at best.

There have been, of course, numerous initiatives in the past aimed at bringing permanent peace to the Middle East. These failed mainly because they did not address in full the root causes of the conflict.

At bottom the Middle East conflict is mainly about race and religious hate bred by socio-economic and material inequalities. For instance, if the Palestinian people were not displaced and deprived of land occupied by them at the time of the founding of the Israeli state, ethnic enmities would not have grown to the current unmanageable proportions.

When addressing the above questions, though, it must be remembered that the Israelis too were a displaced people who were entitled to land and a state of their own in the Middle East. Basically, out of these seemingly irreconcilable and conflicting demands have grown the Middle East imbroglio.

Middle East peace is considerably about reconciling these demands and arriving at a solution that would ensure the creation of two states that would opt for peaceful co-existence thereafter.

As long as the US does not see the need for a non-partisan solution that addresses the needs of both ethnicities and religions and goes all-out, as it were, to have it implemented, the Middle East would continue to bleed.

However, staunching the blood flow through the creation of two states would be only half the job done, though a very important part of it. More pernicious, pervasive and difficult to remedy are the inter-ethnic and inter-religious hatreds that have been unleashed over the decades.

However, if substantial, long-lasting peace is to be fostered in the region the latter ‘demons’ would need to be exorcised from the hearts and minds of the communities concerned. No doubt an uphill task but one that must be undertaken by those who wish the region well.

The UN would need to put its ‘best foot forward’ in such undertakings but it is time that it dawned on the international community and other caring quarters that Middle East peace, and all other such uphill challenges, require proactive peacemaking on the part of all civilized sections for their effective management. That is, public involvement in peacemaking too is a must.

Since hatreds are harboured in the human consciousness the enmities embedded in the latter need to be managed and defused judiciously alongside other undertakings in a peace process. In the case of West Asia, such enmities could be even spread globe-wide besides being multi-dimensional. For instance, it ought to be thought-provoking that Iran is insistent on a peace initiative that would also include Lebanon.

Besides security considerations it is also ethnic and religious affiliations that account for Iran making this demand. For instance, the Shias are a numerically important religious community in Lebanon and they provide a significant number of Hizbollah fighters, who are in a vital sense carrying out a ‘proxy war’ for Iran. It also needs to be factored in that Iran is a Shia-majority country.

Thus trans-border religious affiliations could add to the complexities and enormity of ethno-religious conflicts. However, the task of managing centuries-long enmities needs to be launched and prodded on with by peacemakers since a downing of arms alone would not guarantee substantive peace.

It is not realized sufficiently that the process of ending hatreds begins with mutual apologies by antagonists to a conflict for the harm inflicted on each other. This would be anathema in some ears but there is no getting away from the requirement. It is the vital first step to permanent peace anywhere.

In fact there could be no reconciliation worth speaking of without such mutual apologies. It is a point worth re-iterating in these times when even the government of Sri Lanka is voicing the need for national reconciliation. Well, without the words, ‘I am sorry’, there could be no permanent end to enmities – they would do well to remember.

The above requirements may not go down very well with governments, but they resonate in the hearts and minds of most people, since they are inheritors of religious traditions of some kind.

This is a principal reason why peacemaking works well when publics too are involved in them. The effectiveness of such campaigns increases several fold when they have a Mahatma Gandhi or a Jawaharlal Nehru at their helm. A strong proactive involvement by the public in peace could lead to the emergence of such leaders at some point in these campaigns.

Features

Dialog Brings Sri Lanka’s Largest Digital Vesak Experience to Matara

Published

22 hours ago

2026/06/4

Sahan Weerasooriya

From left to right: Hon. Saroja Savithri Paulraj, Hon. Sunil Handunnetti, and Lasantha Theverapperuma experience the Dialog 5G Ultra-powered VR tours.

Official Digital Partner of the 2026 ‘Dakshina Prabha’ National Vesak Zone

Dialog Axiata PLC, Sri Lanka’s #1 connectivity provider, collaborated with the Ministry of Buddha Sasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs to bring one of Sri Lanka’s largest and most technologically advanced Vesak experiences to the ‘Dakshina Prabha’ National Vesak Zone. The three-day celebration, in Matara attracted more than hundred thousand visitors, who engaged with a series of innovative digital activities powered by Dialog 5G Ultra, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR) experiences, digital pandols and a Data Dansala. The opening ceremony was attended by Hon. Sunil Handunnetti, Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development and Hon. Saroja Savithri Paulraj, Minister of Women and Child Affairs, along with distinguished guests and Dialog’s senior management.

One of the key attractions at the venue was the Dialog 5G Ultra-powered Virtual Reality (VR) experience, which attracted more than 35,000 participants. The activation enabled devotees to virtually visit and pay homage to sacred Buddhist sites, including the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi in India and the Atamasthana in Anuradhapura, directly from the Vesak zone in Matara.

Visitors receive complimentary mobile data through Dialog’s QR-powered Data Dansala.

Dialog also conducted an AI Digital Vesak Greeting Card Competition from 21 May to 01 June 2026, attracting numerous entries from across the country. The shortlisted designs were showcased across 20 large LED screens throughout the venue and across Matara City, and were also made available for download via mobile devices. Further, through the use of AI, traditional Jathaka Katha were reimagined in a digital format, demonstrating how technology can be used to preserve and enhance cultural and religious heritage. Together, these initiatives blended traditional Vesak celebrations with emerging technologies, offering visitors a unique and immersive way to engage with Vesak traditions.

Extending the spirit of Vesak through connectivity, Dialog conducted a special Data Dansala powered by its QR Reload platform, enabling visitors to receive complimentary mobile data by scanning QR codes placed across the venue. In addition to the Matara National Vesak Zone, similar Data Dansala activations were also conducted at the Gangaramaya and Bauddhaloka Vesak zones in Colombo.Visitors also had the opportunity to create personalised Vesak-themed digital photos through an AI Photo Booth, generating AI-enhanced portraits using their own photographs and adding a contemporary digital element to the Vesak celebrations.

Visitors watch AI-generated Jathaka Katha

Commenting on the initiative, Hon. Sunil Handunnetti, Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development, said, “The 2026 Dakshina Prabha Vesak Festival marked the first time AI-powered digital innovations were incorporated into a National Vesak Festival in Sri Lanka. Presenting Buddhist stories and teachings through technology created a new and engaging way for visitors to connect with these traditions. We thank Dialog for supporting this initiative and for working closely with us to bring our vision to life. Their contribution played an important role in making this first-of-its-kind event a reality.”

Lasantha Theverapperuma, Group Chief Marketing Officer of Dialog Axiata PLC said, “We thank the Government of Sri Lanka for the opportunity to support the 2026 Dakshina Prabha National Vesak Festival and for embracing technology as part of this year’s celebrations. As the Official Digital Partner, we were privileged to contribute through our Dialog 5G Ultra and AI capabilities, creating new ways for visitors to engage with Vesak traditions while preserving their cultural significance for future generations.”

Beyond supporting the National Vesak Zone in Matara, Dialog also enhanced the Gangaramaya and Bauddhaloka Vesak zones through a range of digital activations during the Vesak season. The company additionally continued its sustainability initiatives, including the Thirasara Aloka Poojawa, which illuminated rural places of worship through solar-powered lighting solutions.

Features

Beauty, elegance and talent…for women

Published

22 hours ago

2026/06/4

Sahan Weerasooriya

Universal Woman is an international pageant focused on “beauty, elegance, and talent” for women, positioning itself as a platform to shape global ambassadors. The 2026 edition will be held in Cambodia, and Sri Lanka will be there, as well.

According to reports coming my way, contestants, at the international event, will work with industry trailblazers, under international standards.

Sri Lankan supermodel, runway and pageant trainer Chulpadmendra Kumarapathirana, is the National Director for Universal Woman Sri Lanka 2026.

With over two decades in the industry, Chula was crowned Miss Sri Lanka 2006, and has since shaped the next generation of titleholders through her Colombo-based Chulpadmendra Catwalk Studio, widely regarded as one of the country’s leading modelling academies.

The team behind Universal Woman Sri Lanka 2026

A former host of Derana Miss Sri Lanka for Miss World 2008 and a judge for Miss Universe Sri Lanka 2025, Chula now serves as National Director for Universal Woman Sri Lanka 2026, leading the franchise’s search for Sri Lanka’s delegate to the international final in Cambodia.

Applications for Universal Woman Sri Lanka 2026 are being taken, via WhatsApp: 077 659 4994, says Chula.

The judging panel for Universal Woman Sri Lanka 2026 includes Senaka De Silva, Pageant Aesthetic Advisor & Chairperson of the Judging Panel, Angela Seneviratne, Caroline Jurie, Rozelle Plunkett, and Suraj Mapa.

Universal Woman Sri Lanka 2026 officially began its journey with a first round of auditions, held in Colombo, marking the start of an exciting new chapter in Sri Lanka’s pageant industry.

Launching the first round of auditions

The platform aims to empower women while selecting an intelligent, confident, and inspiring representative to compete at the Universal Woman International Pageant 2026 in Cambodia, this September.

Universal Woman Sri Lanka now moves forward with the vision of creating one of the country’s most prestigious and empowering pageants while preparing to crown a queen who will proudly represent Sri Lanka on the international stage.