Katunayake a town is situated on the west coast of the island of
Sri Lanka close to the commercial capital of Colombo. It is the
site of Bandaranaike International Airport, the primary
international air gateway to Sri Lanka. With the change of
government in 1977 and the introduction of the open economy
policy a large area was allocated to create a free trade
zone.(Currently known as the Export Promotion Zone.)This created
a large amount of job opportunities for the local youth and has
contributed substantially towards the countries economy.
Domestic aviation in Sri Lanka has suffered a somewhat patchy
history, mainly due to the civil conflict, which at its height
lead to the banning of all non-military flights. Since the
ceasefire in 2002, however, the industry has taken wing once
again. Most popular is the flight to Jaffna. Our travel
correspondent reports on her experiences flying the carrier
ExpoAir on her recent journalistic mission north. Glancing at a
map of Sri Lanka it seems like a small enough island