--- title: "Colombo to Chennai – 1 way by plane | Mixroutes" description: "Colombo to Chennai is 686 km. Fastest: fly in 5h 45m. Cheapest: fly from Rs23,950. Real timetables, prices labelled live, quoted or estimated." url: "https://www.mixroutes.com/routes/colombo-to-chennai" markdown: "https://www.mixroutes.com/routes/colombo-to-chennai.md" image: "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7a/Semmozhi_Poonga_4.jpg/1920px-Semmozhi_Poonga_4.jpg" --- ![Chennai](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7a/Semmozhi_Poonga_4.jpg/1920px-Semmozhi_Poonga_4.jpg) # How to get from Colombo to Chennai [Plan it for your day](https://www.mixroutes.com/results?from=Colombo&to=Chennai) [Chennai to Colombo](https://www.mixroutes.com/routes/chennai-to-colombo) [Eashchand (CC BY-SA 3.0)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Semmozhi_Poonga_4.jpg) **Fastest:** 5h 45m\ by plane, door to door\ **Cheapest:** Rs23,950\ by plane\ **Distance:** 686 km\ as the crow flies\ **Departures:** –\ none timetabled\ ## 1 way to travel 686 km apart. Times are the timetables for Sat 7 Nov, planned from 08:00; every price says whether it is live, the operator's fare or our estimate. We add nothing to any fare. best Flying is the only way we found for this trip. - [**Fly** best fastest cheapest 5h 45m Rs23,950–40,800 Estimated e-Visa likely needed for India CMB → MAA · non-stop · typical times](https://www.mixroutes.com/results?from=Colombo&to=Chennai) Data: [Roads © OpenStreetMap contributors, routed by OSRM](https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright) · [Typical flight routes from OpenFlights (ODbL), a 2014 snapshot](https://openflights.org/data) · [Places from GeoNames, CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) · [All credits and licences](https://www.mixroutes.com/credits) ## Before you go Borders, permits, official travel advice and disaster alerts for the places on this route, as their sources publish them. Entry rules are shown for a passport from Sri Lanka; the planner lets you pick yours. - **e-Visa likely needed for India** · Sri Lanka passport (assumed) [Check rules](https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/india/entry-requirements) - **Parts of India are advised against, not on this route** [UK](https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/india/warnings-and-insurance) [US](https://travel.state.gov/content/tsg_aem/us/en/home/international-travel/travel-advisories/destination.ind.html) - **Exercise increased caution in Sri Lanka** [US](https://travel.state.gov/content/tsg_aem/us/en/home/international-travel/travel-advisories/destination.lka.html) Travel advice: UK FCDO (Open Government Licence v3.0), US State Department. Visa rules: [Passport Index data](https://github.com/imorte/passport-index-data) (MIT, 17 Feb 2026); always check the official entry rules. ## Questions people ask How long does it take to get from Colombo to Chennai? The fastest way is by plane: about 5h 45m door to door, including the ride to the airport and check-in. The straight-line distance is 686 km. What is the cheapest way from Colombo to Chennai? Flying is the cheapest, from Rs23,950. That figure is an estimate from the operator's fare bands, not a live quote. How long is the flight from Colombo to Chennai? About 1h 30m in the air (CMB → MAA); about 5h 45m door to door once you add the ride to the airport, check-in and the cab at the other end. Typical fares run Rs23,950–40,800; live prices are on Flights70. ## In Chennai Capital of Tamil Nadu, India Chennai, also known as Madras, is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. As per the 2011 Indian census, Chennai is the sixth-most-populous city in India and forms the fourth-most-populous urban agglomeration. The city is coterminous with Chennai district, which together with the adjoining suburbs constitutes the Chennai Metropolitan Area, one of the largest metropolitan areas of India. It is administered by the Greater Chennai Corporation, which was incorporated in 1688, and is the second oldest municipal corporation in the world after the City of London Corporation. Being the capital of the state, it houses major government institutions including the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly, and the Madras High Court. [The Chennai guide](https://www.mixroutes.com/places/chennai) [Hotels in Chennai Compare prices on Hotels70](https://www.hotels70.com/chennai) ## More routes - [Kochi to Chennai](https://www.mixroutes.com/routes/kochi-to-chennai) - [Bengaluru to Chennai](https://www.mixroutes.com/routes/bengaluru-to-chennai) - [Chennai to Pondicherry](https://www.mixroutes.com/routes/chennai-to-pondicherry) - [Chennai to Madurai](https://www.mixroutes.com/routes/chennai-to-madurai) - [Chennai to Tirupati](https://www.mixroutes.com/routes/chennai-to-tirupati) - [Hyderabad to Chennai](https://www.mixroutes.com/routes/hyderabad-to-chennai) --- This is the markdown version of https://www.mixroutes.com/routes/colombo-to-chennai, for search crawlers and AI assistants. The HTML page is the canonical copy. Mixroutes is made by Lascade LLC, Sharjah Media City, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. Index of every page: https://www.mixroutes.com/llms.txt