A Short History of our National Carrier – By Capt Elmo Jayawardena SriLankan Airlines is 45 years old on 1 September 2024. In the mid 40’s Sir John Kotelawala spearheaded a team that planned to start an airline in Ceylon. They first purchased 3 second-hand DC-3 Dakota aeroplanes and recruited flight crew and engineers plus other key people to commence operations for a new airline. They named the fledgling company Air Ceylon and christened the 3 aeroplanes after Lankan Queens, Viharamaha Devi, Seetha Devi and Sunethra Devi. DC-3, the first type used by the National Career The initial operation was restricted to charter flights and the first scheduled trip took off on 10 December 1947 departing Ratmalana and flying to Jaffna and onwards to Madras. The return flight took the same route via Jaffna to Ratmalana. That December day in 1947, the National Carrier commenced scheduled passenger flying covering domestic ...