Dates: 1940 -

RAF Katunayake formerly known as RAF Negombo was built by the British in the mid 1940’s to replace their lost airfields in Pakistan and India. Kat was conveniently situated twixt Aden and Singapore to serve the continuing need of supplying its vast Empire particularly so in the Far East and was used as a staging post to rest crews and passengers of aircraft in transit.

The airfield was used via 3 organisations, primarily it was a Royal Air Force Base, although the Royal Ceylon Air Force was formed in the late forties they expanded their air force by establishing their headquarters at Kat. The major civilian airlines used Kat as their northern mid Indian Ocean base as a refueling stopover where crews were ’slipped’, passengers were able to take a break and the aircraft could be replenished for the next leg of their journey.

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