- Air Ceylon
Air Ceylon was
Ceylon 's (later Sri Lanka's) national carrier that began as Ceylon Airways in1947 , and was fully state-owned. It ceased operations in1978 and was replaced byAir Lanka .*IATA Code: AE
History
Initial services, which were domestic and regional, used a
Douglas DC-3 Dakota. The home base wasColombo-Ratmalana Airport . On21 December 1949 , an Air Ceylon Douglas DC-3 crashed atTrichinopoly India . [http://www.planecrashinfo.com/Airline/AL%20Af-Ai.htm] . Later aLockheed Constellation was obtained.In 1962, services from Colombo-Ratmalana to London were started, using leased
British Overseas Airways Corporation BOACde Havilland Comet 4 jets.In 1964 the logo was changed from a stylized 'AC' to a gold
Hamsa bird on a red ground.An
Avro (Hawker Siddeley ) 748 turboprop was obtained in1964 . The type became the mainstay of Air Ceylon's regional and domestic routes and would continue until the airline was closed down.To supplement the Avro 748, Air Ceylon bought a
Nord Aviation Nord 262 for domestic routes in1967 .In 1967, international services commenced at
Bandaranaike International Airport , using BOAC VC-10 jets. In 1969, aHawker Siddeley Trident jet was obtained for medium-haul routes.In 1972, Air Ceylon leased a
Douglas DC-8 fromUTA - Union de Transports Aériens for its European services, which also included Paris. This aircraft was replaced in1977 by another unit of the same make purchased by the airline. Also leased was aBoeing 720 jet.The airline was closed down by the Government of
J.R. Jayawardene in 1978.Destinations
*
Colombo
*Jaffna
*Trincomalee
*Madras / Chennai
*Bombay / Mumbai
*Male
*Karachi
*Bangkok
*Singapore
* Sharjah
*Cairo
*Zurich
*Paris
*London
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