Srilankan accepting India-Colombo booking at 30k return from September

Following a Govt decision that Indian tourists are welcome, Srilanka's national airline Srilankan has opened flight booking to Colombo from Bengaluru, Cochin, Chennai and Mumbai. Hyderabad and Delhi may be added soon.

While that is good news as it opens another potential neighborhood tourist destination to Indians (apart from Maldives), the ticket price is 2x the normal. While pre-covid it was possible to fly Chennai-Colombo or BLR-Colombo return for about 15k (I've done at 10-11k during sales), current asking price is about 29-30k. Mumbai-Colombo is 42k. Clearly the focus for the airline is to encash from people who have an urgency to travel and can cough up more money. Airlines also need to recover loss they suffered for months keeping their planes idle.

If you check price for late October/November, return ticket is 20k, for  December/Jan 2022, BLR-Colombo return ticket is available for 16k, which is more reasonable. But booking too early also carries lots of risk- wave 3 may kick in and travel restrictions may be enforced. The cheapest fares are Eco saver that are not really flexible if you wish to cancel or change dates.

Also Srilankan is NOT offering any connected flights as of now. You can't fly to Moscow or Seychelles or London via Colombo from BLR/MAA etc. Probably the airline is not yet ready for such trips due to covid related complexities and restrictions. Only Maldives is allowed as they accept Indian tourists,

I will monitor the situation for another month. If all things look favorable, will plan a trip for early 2022 may be.

What are you thinking?