What Ceylon needed to support British carrier strikes

Was Ceylon large and developed enough to serve as a base for Royal Navy carrier strikes in the Pacific?

It could have served, but only after substantial investment in fleet-support infrastructure that had not been made before the war.

Ceylon had the potential to support carrier operations, but its existing facilities were insufficient for a major wartime fleet. Alliance planning had concentrated British infrastructure spending on the European and Mediterranean theaters. Moving a fleet east therefore required bases, repair capacity, supply systems, and other support to be built after the strategic shift began. The delay exposed the consequences of limited interwar investment in both Ceylon and Singapore.