Colombo Airport Guide: Sri Lanka’s Gateway at Katunayake
Colombo Airport at Katunayake is Sri Lanka's main international gateway and the home of SriLankan Airlines. Runways, terminals, routes and access explained.
By The Aviation Hub
7 min read
Updated October 20, 2026 
Bandaranaike International Airport is the main gateway to Sri Lanka and the home base of SriLankan Airlines. Known to most travellers as Colombo Airport, it stands at Katunayake, about 20 miles (32 km) north of the capital, on a site that began life as a wartime RAF airfield. The airport handles close to 9 million passengers a year on a single runway, and it has spent the past decade waiting for a second terminal that keeps being delayed. For the island’s tourism industry it is the front door.
Colombo Airport at a Glance
The IATA code is CMB and the ICAO code is VCBI. The airport sits beside the town of Negombo in Western Province, around 20 miles (32 km) north of central Colombo and 9 metres (30 feet) above sea level. There is one runway, a main international terminal, a small domestic terminal and a dedicated cargo terminal. An active Sri Lanka Air Force base shares the airfield.
Traffic peaked at roughly 10.8 million passengers in 2018 and fell away during the pandemic and the economic crisis of 2022. By 2024 the figure had recovered to around 8.8 million as tourism rebounded. SriLankan Airlines, the low cost carrier FitsAir and the domestic operator Cinnamon Air are based here. The state owned Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) runs the airport, and up to date flight information is on the airport’s official website.
A Short History of Katunayake
The Royal Air Force built the airfield in 1944 as RAF Negombo, one of several bases on Ceylon during the war against Japan. The site passed to the Royal Ceylon Air Force in 1957 and took the name Katunayake. A civil international airport, financed with Canadian aid, was completed in 1967, and Air Ceylon began international services from it. The first Boeing 747 arrived in 1971, flown by Condor from Frankfurt.
The airport was named after the former prime minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike in 1970, renamed Katunayake International Airport in 1977 and given back the Bandaranaike name in 1995. The civil war brought tragedy to the field. A bomb destroyed an Air Lanka Lockheed TriStar in 1986, killing 21 people, and an LTTE raid in 2001 destroyed eight military aircraft and two civilian Airbus jets and damaged three more.
The years since the war ended in 2009 have been about catching up. A cargo terminal opened that year, a domestic terminal followed in 2012 and the runway was resurfaced in 2017. Emirates landed the first Airbus A380 here in January 2012.
Runways at Colombo Airport
Colombo Airport operates a single runway, 04/22, which is 3,350 metres (10,991 feet) long and 45 metres wide with an asphalt surface. The length is ample for the Boeing 777-300ER and Airbus A350-900 operated by Gulf and European carriers, and the A380 has used it without difficulty. Aircraft landing on runway 04 approach from the southwest past the Negombo lagoon, while runway 22 arrivals come in from the northeast over inland country.
With one runway shared between civil traffic and the air force, capacity is finite. Peak periods in the early morning and late evening, when the Gulf carriers and the European flights bunch together, put pressure on the apron more than the runway itself. Apron Echo opened in 2021 to add parking stands.
Plans for a parallel runway have appeared on paper for years, but the authorities have said no second runway is likely before the 2050s. The existing strip will instead be modified and its taxiway system improved. Sri Lanka’s two worst air disasters both involved flights approaching this airport: a Martinair DC-8 that struck mountains in the hill country in 1974, and an Icelandic Airlines DC-8 that crashed into a coconut plantation short of the runway in 1978.
Terminals and Airlines
Terminal 1, the original 1967 building, handles every international flight at Colombo Airport through 12 gates. It has been extended and refurbished several times, but it is cramped at peak hours and its design capacity has long been exceeded. SriLankan Airlines operates from here with a fleet of Airbus A330-300 and A320 family aircraft, and the carrier’s Oneworld partners Qatar Airways, Cathay Pacific and Malaysia Airlines use the same building, with British Airways returning from London Gatwick from late October 2026.
Emirates, Etihad, flydubai, Air Arabia and Gulf Air bring heavy Gulf traffic. Indian carriers IndiGo and Air India fly multiple daily services, and Turkish Airlines, Aeroflot, China Eastern and Singapore Airlines add long haul choice. Terminal 3, opened in 2012, handles domestic flights by Cinnamon Air and others. The cargo terminal, opened in 2009, takes all freighter traffic.
Terminal 2 is the long promised new international building. Construction began under Japanese finance but stopped in 2022 when the economic crisis hit, and work has only recently been scheduled to resume.
Routes and Destinations
More than 35 passenger airlines link Colombo Airport with Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Australia. Dubai is the busiest international route with about 60 flights a week, followed by Male, Chennai, Doha and Kuala Lumpur. The Gulf hubs carry most of the traffic to Europe and North America, while India provides the largest single national market.
SriLankan Airlines flies nonstop to London Heathrow, Paris, Frankfurt, Tokyo Narita, Melbourne and Sydney, with Sydney and London Heathrow the longest sectors from the island. Domestic flying is small but distinctive, with seaplane services from Beira Lake in central Colombo and short hops to Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Sigiriya. Winter is the peak season for European tourists, and the Gulf routes stay busy year round with migrant workers.
Getting to and from Colombo Airport
The E03 Colombo Katunayake Expressway is the main link to the city. A taxi or app booked car with PickMe or Uber takes 30 to 45 minutes to central Colombo outside rush hour and costs roughly LKR 4,000 to 6,000 (around £10 to £15). Air conditioned expressway coaches run about every 15 minutes to Colombo Fort for a fraction of that fare and are the cheapest sensible option.
Local bus route 187 also serves Colombo Fort, more slowly, and EX2 and EX3 services run to Makumbura. Katunayake Railway Station lies close to the airport, but the dedicated airport express train was not running in 2024 and ordinary commuter trains are infrequent. Pre booked hotel transfers are popular with tourists heading straight to Negombo or the south coast.
Parking is available in surface car parks in front of the terminal. Many visitors arrange a driver for their whole stay, and the airport has counters for the main tour operators in the arrivals hall.
Spotting and Photography
Colombo Airport’s position between the Negombo lagoon and open farmland gives a few useful spots. The roads around Katunayake and Seeduwa to the south and southwest offer views of aircraft on final approach to runway 04 from the lagoon side. Arrivals on runway 22 come in over inland villages to the northeast, where open views are harder to find.
The air force presence means the authorities are sensitive about cameras near the perimeter. Photographing military aircraft, the base or security posts is a bad idea and can lead to questioning. Keep to public roads, be open about what you are doing if asked and avoid lingering by fences. The early morning and late evening banks bring the Gulf wide bodies and the A330 fleet of the home carrier, which is when most enthusiasts visit.
What Comes Next
Everything hinges on Terminal 2. The new building, with eight extra gates, a split level design, a multi storey car park and A380 capable jet bridges, would roughly double capacity and relieve the ageing Terminal 1. The economic crisis froze the project, and completion is now unlikely before around 2028.
Colombo Airport will remain Sri Lanka’s dominant gateway for the foreseeable future, since the alternative at Hambantota in the south has attracted little traffic. With tourism recovering and the home carrier restructuring, the airport is heading towards its 2018 peak again, if slowly. See where it ranks against other gateways on the Airports of the World map.
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