Ahmedabad-Colombo Direct Flight Launch: Why Sri Lanka is Betting Big on India’s West Coast

Sri Lankan carrier FitsAir will begin operating direct flights between Ahmedabad and Colombo from June 15th 2026, with services running three times a week. The route is expected to reduce travel time from nearly nine hours, with stopovers, to roughly three hours.

Speaking to WION, Kamal Munasinghe, Senior Vice President of Colombo Hotels at Cinnamon Hotels & Resorts and General Manager of Cinnamon Life at City of Dreams, said India remained Sri Lanka’s “number one market” for tourism.

He said Sri Lanka received around 500,000 Indian tourists last year and expected that figure to grow by 20 to 25 per cent this year. Munasinghe added that, while several Indian cities already had direct links to Colombo, Ahmedabad represented an untapped opportunity.

“We saw a huge opportunity because there was no direct connectivity between Ahmedabad and Colombo,” he said during the discussion.

Executives said Gujarat’s large outbound travel market, combined with strong cultural and culinary similarities between India and Sri Lanka, made the state a natural target for expansion.

India contributed 24% of Sri Lanka’s total tourist arrivals in 2025.

Nalaka Amaratunga, Chief Executive Officer of the Destination Management Sector at John Keells Holdings, stated that Gujarat’s population and growing appetite for international leisure travel played a significant role in the decision.

He noted that India contributed 24 per cent of Sri Lanka’s total tourist arrivals in 2025, with more than 531,000 Indian visitors travelling to the island nation. Sri Lanka recorded 2.36 million tourist arrivals overall last year.

The tourism industry also sees Gujarat as a growing market for MICE tourism, which refers to meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions. According to Amaratunga, large Indian corporate events are increasingly being hosted in Sri Lanka due to expanded hospitality infrastructure and integrated resorts in Colombo.

A major focus of the strategy is City of Dreams Sri Lanka, a USD 1.3 billion integrated resort project in Colombo, developed by John Keells Holdings in partnership with global casino operator Melco Resorts. Munasinghe described the project as South Asia’s first fully integrated resort, featuring two hotels, entertainment venues, shopping facilities, gaming spaces and conference infrastructure capable of hosting thousands of guests.