Admiral (Retired) Kanchana Banagoda has been appointed chairman of Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) (Private) Limited, the state-owned company that operates the country’s airports.
Ada Derana carried the appointment as a news alert at about 9.05 p.m. on Monday. It reported that Banagoda will formally assume duties as chairman on September 1.
The appointment fills a post that has been held on an acting basis for most of this year. The aviation trade outlet Aviation Voice, reporting the appointment on Sunday, said W.S. Mangala, Secretary to the Ministry of Ports and Civil Aviation, had been serving as acting chairman since the departure of former chairman Harsha Abeywickrama in January.
Two aviation bodies, two changes
The appointment is separate from the change at the country’s aviation regulator announced a day earlier. Retired Colonel Ranjith Rajasinghe was named chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka on Sunday, succeeding Sunil Jayaratne, and is due to assume duties on August 25.
The two organisations perform different functions. AASL is the operator — it runs Bandaranaike International Airport at Katunayake and the country’s other airports, and handles ground infrastructure and airport services. CAASL is the regulator, responsible for safety oversight and licensing across the sector.
The changes place new leadership at both bodies within days of each other.
Background not disclosed
Neither report set out Banagoda’s professional background beyond his retired naval rank, nor the term of his appointment or the authority that made it. No reason was given for the timing.
AASL is handling rising traffic through its airports. Bandaranaike International recorded 4.7 million passenger movements in the first half of 2026, and the company has this month issued public warnings about kite flying near airport approach paths.
As of late Monday, no other verified Sri Lankan newsroom had published its own report of the appointment.
Update, August 26: the appointing minister named — and a service branch misreported
NewsFirst became the second verified newsroom to report the appointment, filing on Wednesday afternoon. It confirmed the September 1 start date and answered one of the questions left open above: the appointment was made by Anura Karunatilake, the minister in charge of the subject.
That is consistent with the reporting already on file. Karunatilake holds the Ports and Civil Aviation portfolio — the same ministry whose secretary, W.S. Mangala, had been serving as acting chairman. He was additionally sworn in as Energy Minister in April.
NewsFirst also supplied the professional background neither earlier report carried, but it named the wrong service. It described Banagoda as “the 26th Commander of the Sri Lanka Air Force.” He was the 26th Commander of the Navy, a post he held from 31 December 2024 until 1 July 2026. The ordinal is right and the branch is wrong — an Admiral is a naval rank, so the description contradicts itself, and the error appears to be NewsFirst’s alone. The Ministry of Defence announced his appointment in December 2024 as Commander of the Sri Lanka Navy, and this masthead reported in July on his successor, Vice Admiral Damian Fernando, paying homage at Anuradhapura after taking over the post. Banagoda had succeeded Priyantha Perera.
The correction matters for the timeline: Banagoda left the Navy’s top post less than two months before this appointment, having previously served as Chief of Staff of the Navy. His term at AASL and the authority that formally approved it remain undisclosed.
