Jaffna International Airport (; ) , formerly known as Palaly Airport and Jaffna Airport, is an international airport serving northern Sri Lanka. It was also a military airbase known as Sri Lanka Air Force Palaly or SLAF Palaly. The airport is located in the town of Palaly near Kankesanthurai, north of the city of Jaffna. It is at an elevation of and has one runway designated 05/23 with an asphalt surface measuring . The airport was originally built by the Royal Air Force during World War II, after which it functioned as the country's second international airport. It was taken over by the Sri Lanka Air Force during the Sri Lankan Civil War. Domestic civilian flights resumed in the mid-1990s and in 2019 it became Sri Lanka's third international airport. History World War II During World War II the British Royal Air Force built an airfield on of land in Palaly near Kankesanthurai in northern Ceylon. The airfield's runway was around long. A number of RAF squadrons (160, 203, 292, 354) and air-sea rescue units were stationed at the airfield during and immediately after the war. The airfield was abandoned after the war and taken over by the Department of Civil Aviation. Post-WWII The inaugural flight by Air Ceylon on 10 December 1947 was from Ratmalana Airport to Madras via Palaly. After independence the airport provided domestic flights to Colombo (Ratmalana) and Trincomalee, and international flights to south India (Madras and Tiruchirappalli). Locals used the airport when visiting south India for cultural, educational and religious reasons while local politicians and officials used the airport for travelling to Colombo. Each year government employees would request three railway warrants for journeys between Kankesanthurai and Galle, the longest and costliest rail journey possible, and exchange these for air tickets between Palaly and Ratmalana. Air Ceylon's Douglas DC-3, Avro HS-748 and Nord 262 planes operated out of the airport. The growth of Tamil militancy put an end to civilian flights at the airport. Sri Lankan civil war A Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) detachment moved onto the site around 1976. The site became an Air Field Unit in January 1982. The airport served as major facility for the Sri Lankan military during the civil war. The army forcibly seized of neighbouring land in 1985. Following the signing of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord in July 1987 the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) used Palaly to