Route brief · DXB → CMB
Dubai → Colombo
$289
−15% vs typical
seasonal median $340 · difference $51
Nov 19 – Nov 29 · 10 nights
Etihad1 stop
- Usual monthly lows
- $290–$367
- Board rank
- Stronger than 38%
- Route sample
- 9 observed months
Cached fare — the booking search re-prices live before you pay.
Destination briefCMBColomboA working port city that most people leave immediately — for tea country, ruins and the south coast.Best windowDec–MarAirportsBandaranaike (CMB)All routes into ColomboWhen this route gets cheap.
Cached-fare history: across 9 months, Nov is the cheapest for DXB → CMB. Best time to be there: Dec–Mar.
Fares bottom out in November around $289 and peak in December near $394 — a $105 spread across the 9 months we track. The cheapest itinerary we are tracking makes one stop and takes about 6.5 hours outbound, on a 10-night trip — ticketed under Etihad, which on a connecting fare need not operate every leg. At $289 for 3,308 km each way, that works out to about $44 per 1,000 km flown. That is about the $39 typical of medium-haul fares here. Across the 6 departure cities we track at a similar distance from Colombo, this fare ranks 2nd — 11% above the $261 from Abu Dhabi. That puts it in the cheaper half of the 10 routes of similar length we watch out of Dubai, where the middle fare is $308.
Cheapest day in the next 3 months: Sep 15 · $249 (31% below median)
Tap any day → live search
The median cached fare across this calendar is 7% lower than when tracking began on Aug 8 — $376 then versus $350 now, across 8 recorded snapshots. This is a calendar-level trend, so an individual deal above can be lower. The lowest single day we have seen here is $249, on Sep 15.
September 2026
October 2026
Cheapest in Nov · around $289
15% below the $340 typical fare
Cheapest round-trip fare found per month · Dubai → Colombo · cached-price history
Route facts
- Airports
- DXB · Al Maktoum (DWC) ↔ Bandaranaike (CMB)
- Flight time
- ~6.5 hours outbound
- Distance
- ~3,308 km each way
- Typical price
- $340 round-trip (seasonal median)
- Airlines on the board
- Etihad
- Itineraries
- Connections on current fares
- Best months to visit
- Dec–Mar
DXB → CMB, answered.
Is $289 a good price for Dubai to Colombo?
Only slightly. The seasonal median is around $340 round-trip and this fare is 15% under it, about $51. We do not call a drop notable until 20%, so this is an ordinary price for the route rather than a reason to hurry.
What is the cheapest month to fly from Dubai to Colombo?
Across 9 months of cached-fare history, Nov comes out cheapest on this route. The best months to actually be in Colombo are Dec–Mar — when those overlap, that's your window.
How far in advance should I book DXB → Colombo?
We do not publish a number for this, because we cannot measure it yet. Answering it honestly means watching the same departure date on this route over many weeks as it approaches, and that archive is still filling up — so any "book N days ahead" figure here would be borrowed from somewhere else rather than measured. What we can measure is which month is cheap: across 9 months of cached fares, Nov comes out lowest on this route. See /guides/what-moves-a-flight-price/ for what does move a fare.
Are there nonstop flights from Dubai to Colombo?
The current cheapest fares involve a connection, ticketed under Etihad. Nonstop options exist on many dates at higher prices — check the live search for your exact dates.
Are these prices guaranteed?
No — these are cached fares found on real searches (this one on September 1). Airlines reprice constantly, so the booking search re-checks the live price before you pay. Fresher finds are far more likely to still be available.
Next step
Sleeping in Colombo?
Lock the flight first — then compare stays for Nov 19 – Nov 29 · 10 nights.
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Missed it?
Cached fares expire. This route has a feed of its own — follow it and the next DXB → CMB drop reaches you as soon as we find it.
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