Koggala Airport guide

Koggala Airport (KCT, ICAO VCCK) sits on the southern coast of Sri Lanka in Galle District, beside Koggala Lake at an elevation of about 3 metres. It began in 1942 as a Royal Air Force flying-boat base, built after Japan occupied the Malay Peninsula, and became the largest such base in the east. In 1943 it anchored the long-range link to Perth known as the "Double Sunrise" flight.

After the war a tarmac runway was laid, and Air Ceylon ran services from the site until it closed in 1978. The airfield then continued as a Sri Lanka Air Force base, and it still shares its facilities with the air force. Its single asphalt runway, 07/25, can take aircraft such as the Dash-8 and ATR-72.

Civil use is light and domestic. Cinnamon Air flies scheduled and charter services from the airfield with small Cessna 208 amphibious aircraft, with Colombo as the main link. Charter operators have also used the airfield for flights to Colombo-Ratmalana and Hambantota. The government has studied upgrading Koggala to international standard as an alternative to Bandaranaike International Airport, and a feasibility study has been completed. No passenger statistics are published.