5 Cheapest international flights right now from India

Here are 5 Cheapest international flights right now from India. All these 5 are India’s neighboring countries and a return trip can be had for under 20k. Quarantine/covid rules are also largely relaxed now and you can plan a trip without burning your wallet or risking complicated covid rules.  If you are keen to use your passport you can check the fares, fix a date, book and plan your travel.

1 Delhi - Kathmandu 12k return

Nepal is the cheapest destination we can visit from India. It has been the cheapest destination since long time except for some airasia sales during which Thailand and Malaysia were cheaper. We had flown to Kathmandu in 2019 for about 8.5k return (indigo) At present Vistara and other airlines are offering return fare for 12k or less, which feels reasonable under current circumstances.

Of course more cheaper option would be to go by road.

Related: Nepal in budget * Katmandu in a day *

2 Bangkok for 13k

Thai AirAsia has started India flights.  Kolkata-Bangkok flights may be available for 12-13k for select dates

Thailand travel rules are now relaxed for fully vaccinated travelers. No RTPCR, no quarantine, but you should have travel insurance wort 10000 USD

Colombo tickets are available for 13-15k but I am not counting it as right now time is not right to visit Srilanka.

With planned NOK air India launch, hopefully Thailand becomes even more affordable.

3 Maldives under 14- 20k return

Kochi- Maldives 17k return, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi to Male for 19k return are available for May and June. Monsoon would begin from June so better to hurry if Maldives is in your wind. Plan to return by June 1st week or plan for post October.

Read my India to Maldives travel guide

4. Kuala Lumpur for 15k

Cheap flight to Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur now costs 15k return to start with, from cities like Chennai

Read my Malaysia posts here

5 Dubai return for 20k

On select dates from Mumbai you may get return ticket for 20k. Tickets cost 25k on an average 

Bali is bit expensive at this moment with return tickets costing 40k +. Europe seems like better option- you may get a return ticket for 50-60k from select Indian airports to select airports in Europe (Check Finair)

Bonus: Mumbai/Delhi to Vietnam for 15k-

Sky high ticket prices- what to do?

Flight ticket prices are now over the roof. Domestic travel that used to cost 6k return are now selling at 20k. International flights are also insanely expensive. So what to do?

Why prices are increasing?

As international travel has resumed, people are eager to travel- to meet their family, to explore the world. As demand has increased, airlines have figured out that they can keep the ticket price high and still fill all seats. Increased ATF due to Ukraine Russia war and a compulsion to recover losses during covid are adding as convincing excuse.

So what to do? Would the airfares come down in coming days?

As a budget traveler, I would wait for prices to come down to sane levels. Let those who have an urgency to travel or have lots of money to travel at high ticket prices travel now. A few months down the line demand might ease a bit. It may take 6 to 9 months.

Once capacity increases and demand decreases, ticket price will drop. I would wait for that to happen than paying through my nose. We also need to see which all countries relax RTPCR, quarantine and other covid related rules, which induce a level of uncertainty to our travel (what if we test negative in one of the reports).

First sale after reopening- vistara website crashes

Update: Working fine next day.

Original post:

Vistara announced a sale recently, saying international return tickets are available for 12999 and domestic flights from 2499 all in.

This is an airline sale for the first time after reopening international flights March last week. Understandably the craze for travel is very high right now and lakhs of people would have rushed to vistara website to book cheap fares.  The website keeps crashing mostly due to excessive number of users checking flight fares.

Hopefully Vistara website recovers and those looking for cheap fares should be able to book over next few days.

Did you manage to book?

12999 return is probably for Delhi-Nepal or Chennai-Colombo. Will try to explore once website starts working.