When the Maldives where really "discovered" ...

[Bernard]

On 19 October 1960, Malé Airport saw its bold beginning by the first aircraft, which landed on the slotted steel runway on the Hulhule Island. The airplane was a Vickers Viking of the Royal New Zealand Air Force. It eventuelly started then from China Bay air base at Trincomalee or RAF Gan in the most southern part of the Maldives. 

The first commercial flight was done by a DC-3 Air Ceylon, which landed there on 10 April 1962. In 1964 the Maldives government decided to replace the slotted steel runway with an improved asphalt one. This step was the beginning of scheduled flights, probably with Avro 748 as mentioned somewhere.


After having left Colombo Katunayake and heading southwestern,




the Air Ceylon aircraft reached North Malé Atoll,




passed Malé Island with its "town" (beginning the Sixties there really where just a few buildings and an intense vegetation)




and landed on the rudimentary runway which later became officialy Hulhule Airport. I couldn't reproduce the crowd that followed the landing that day.




Curiously Colombo Airport was first named "Katunayake", in honour of former und well known Prime Minister it changed to "Bandaranaike" in 1970, then was renamed again "Katunayake" in 1977 and finally back to "Bandaranaike" in 1995!


Bernard

[corum]

Hello Bernard

First of all, thank you for sharing your "small Afghan airports" package.

Here is some additional information to your "Maldives discovery".

The major international airport in Ceylon, until 1967, was Ratmalana Intl Airport, south of Colombo city center. This scenery is available here at CalClassic.

It once was a very busy airport, link here:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombo_International_Airport,_Ratmalana

Nowadays, it houses the Sri Lankan Air Force museum, which is well worth a visit:

www.airforcemuseum.lk/

Blue Skies.

M

[Bernard]

Thanks for these complementary informations. Nevertheless, it's slightly confusing. 1962 traffic uses almost exclusively Katunayake, whereas Ratmalana is only deserved by daily India Airlines flights from and to Jaffna. Furthermore 1963 Air Ceylon timetable mentions also Katunayake as Colombo's airport.

In fact, the intention to add a screenshot of the aircraft taking off at Katyanuke in my post was just to show sometimes rather negleted destinations again.


BTW, interstingly this was already subject in a former post.

Feb 22, 2019 15:24:42 GMT -5 Tom/CalClassic said:

Hi Bill,

That's interesting. In my 1960 OAG BOAC is indeed using Katunayake, but other airlines (Air Ceylon, Indian, and TWA) are using Ratamala. KLM and QANTAS do not mention the airport used, but I would bet KLM is using Ratamala since they advertise that they are the "Agent for Air Ceylon in the USA". QANTAS may be using Katunayake due to its affiliation with BOAC, but I don't know. In my 1959 OAG, BOAC does not list airports used (nor do the timetables on timetableimages), so I cannot know when they switched from or if they ever used Ratamala.

In 1962, Air Ceylon is using Katunayake but TWA is still using Ratamala. The others (BOAC, Indian, and QANTAS) do not say. Both airports are now (for the first time) listed in the International Airports section - before this, only Ratamala was listed.

Bernard

[corum]

Hello Bernard

It is indeed sad, how quickly "recent history" is forgotten. The people in the know have since passed on.

If we "believe" the Wikipedia entry, it seems that building of the civilian side was started in 1964, and international flights out of "Bandaranaike" only started in 1967.

It is of course confusing reading about the contradictory time table entries of that time.

From the Wiki entry:

In 1957, Prime minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike removed all the British Military airfields from Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and the airfield was handed over to the Royal Ceylon Air Force (RCyAF) and renamed Katunayake; part of it still remains a military airfield. In 1964 Anil Moonesinghe, the Minister of Communications, started the building of a new international airport to replace Ratmalana, with Canadian aid. The airport was completed in 1967, and Air Ceylon, the national carrier, began international operations from it using a Hawker Siddeley Trident and a leased British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) VC-10. It was named after former Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike, in 1970. It was renamed Katunayake International Airport in 1977, but was changed back to Bandaranaike International Airport in 1995.

Once again, a pity that nobody can recall the actual fact(s).

Just as an aside, this might be the world's only example of a aircraft in Air Force colours operating a regular commercial flight? (don't shoot me down...).

The story as follows:

In my Sri Lankan Air Force book (unfortunately no civilian information), they mention the purchase in 1973 of a Convair 440 second hand from Eastern Airlines.
It was operated under a company called "Helitours", to quote: "...operate commercially to cater to the tourist market mainly using the helicopters and available fixed wing aircraft of the Ceylon Air Force to transport groups of passengers to various parts of island. Although initially a project operated within Ceylon, by the end of 1972, Helitours was operating to the Maldives too. The Convair was used to boost operations between Ceylon and the Maldives."

Unfortunately I have no registration or S/N details for that aircraft.



Blue skies.

M

[cobar]

The aircraft used by Helitours was a Convair CV-440 Registration CR-811 C/N 427 used from 1973 until wfu in 1982. Link to an interesting article on flying in the Maldives. aviadoradeceilan.medium.com/air-maldives-the-formative-years-1db70d73ec76

[corum]

Hello Cobar

Very nice find. Bookmarked, thank you.

I have similar photos of the CV 440 as seen below the 8Q — AM101 photo in the Sri Lankan Air Force book.

Not sure I would be very happy to board an aircraft named "Flying Fish II", considering the amount of water surrounding these islands...

Blue skies.

M

[Bernard]

Some time ago I made this threat on the first commercial flight to the Maldives. In the meantime I came across a post about the same destination on another site. This prompted me to include exceptionally this arichpel in a modern version of FS9 and recreate this place as I discovered it twenty years ago. The older LAGO scenery is well suited to this purpose.

I know, I'm seriously breaking the rules of this forum by adding a topic that's far later from the classic era. Nevertheless, I hope I won't definitely be banned for it...


The seaplane terminal at Male, the airport itself and the city of Male in the background




Back then, the seaplane was moored to a raft few hundred feets from the Fonimagoodhoo Island or better known as Reethi Beach. Quite unsual and ugly to be debarked almost in the middle of the Indian Ocean!



Here, the DHC-6 Twin Otter of Maldivian Air Transport makes an AI round trip flight from Male. The stearable model had to be adapted thanks to the help of Günther Kirschstein (aka GKCherry), which is a wellknown FDE specialist and contributed to many model creations.


Bernard

[Tom/CalClassic]

No problem. It’s amazing how much development there has been.

[nmlw]

Thanks for the Maldives history and your recreation flight shots Bernard.