Getting here · fares as of July 2026
How to reach the Andaman Islands
The short version: you fly to Port Blair. There is no road or rail to the mainland, so every visitor arrives by air at Veer Savarkar International Airport (code IXZ) — or, rarely, by a slow passenger ship. Below is exactly how the flights work, what they cost by city, when to book, the ship option told honestly, and one arrival rule we ask every guest to follow so a delayed flight never costs them a beach.
Fly to
Port Blair (IXZ)
Veer Savarkar International Airport — the one gateway to the islands.
Direct from
Chennai · Kolkata
~2 h and ~2.5 h. Other cities connect through these two.
From abroad
Via a mainland metro
No international flights land here — connect via an Indian city first.
Step one: fly to Port Blair
The Andamans sit about 1,200 km off India's east coast, so there is no driving and no train. Every arriving traveller lands at Veer Savarkar International Airport (IXZ) in Port Blair, and from there the islands open up by ferry. The airport's name carries "international", but no flights operate from outside India — that word is the airport's designation, not a route. International visitors fly into a mainland metro first — Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai or Hyderabad — and connect onward to Port Blair from there.
Four cities fly direct to Port Blair every day of the year's schedule — Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Delhi — and the network grows for the season: Hyderabad and Mumbai nonstops pause for the monsoon and resume from 1 October, and Visakhapatnam runs around three days a week. That is still more than the old advice admits — everything does not route through Chennai — but the honest version is that the direct map itself breathes with the season, which is why we check what is actually flying on your dates. Chennai stays the shortest hop at about two hours, and the two eastern hubs carry the most flights.
Who flies there: four airlines serve Port Blair in the 2026 summer schedule — IndiGo, Air India, Air India Express and Akasa Air. Which of them operates your particular route changes with the season and the schedule, so we check what is actually flying on your dates rather than assuming. One thing worth knowing whoever you fly: Port Blair has a single airport with one runway and limited daily slots, so flights fill and capacity does not get added on demand — book the flight before the hotel.
Flights to Port Blair by city (typical 2026 fares)
| Route | Return fare range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Chennai → Port Blair | ₹4,500 – ₹13,500 | Daily direct, ~2 h — 3 flights a day · IndiGo, Akasa Air |
| Kolkata → Port Blair | ₹5,500 – ₹16,500 | Daily direct, ~2.5 h · IndiGo, Air India Express, Akasa Air |
| Bengaluru → Port Blair | ₹6,600 – ₹20,000 | Daily direct · Air India Express; IndiGo adds a second daily flight from 1 Oct |
| Delhi → Port Blair | ₹9,000 – ₹27,000 | Daily direct · Air India |
| Mumbai → Port Blair | ₹7,800 – ₹22,000 | Seasonal — no nonstop in the monsoon; IndiGo resumes 1 Oct. Until then, connect via Chennai or Bengaluru |
| Hyderabad → Port Blair | Ask us | Seasonal — paused 1 Jul–30 Sep; IndiGo's daily flight resumes 1 Oct |
| Visakhapatnam → Port Blair | Ask us | Around 3 days a week — the schedule shifts mid-season, confirm your date with us |
| Bhubaneswar → Port Blair | — | Operated Mar 2025 – Jan 2026, currently discontinued. We watch the winter filing |
Return fares as of July 2026 — market ranges, not quotes. Chennai and Kolkata fly direct year-round; the others depend on the season (below), which is why the longer routes cost and take more. Full trip costing sits on our Andaman trip cost page.
Which cities fly direct — and why the usual advice is out of date
The direct network to Port Blair has grown, and a lot of travel advice has not caught up with it — but the network also has a season of its own. In the schedule airlines have filed for summer 2026 — the season running to 24 October — Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Delhi fly direct every day, while Hyderabad and Mumbai are filed with a monsoon pause: both resume from 1 October. That pause is not new — Mumbai carried no monsoon passengers in 2025 either — what is new is that the airlines now file it in advance. So if you were told you must connect through Chennai, check again; and if a booking site shows no Hyderabad nonstop in August, that is the schedule, not a glitch.
The honest caveat: routes here move season to season, and the figures above come from the summer schedule. The winter schedule takes over from late October and can differ. Two things stay true whatever the season — Chennai and Kolkata carry the most flights and are the safest bet if your dates are rigid, and a connection is the leg that turns a delayed flight into a missed ferry, so leave it room. We check what is actually flying on your dates before anything is booked.
Routes, frequencies and airlines from the DGCA Approved Summer Schedule 2026 (published 18 March 2026, valid 29 March – 24 October 2026). Every flight number, its operating days and exact timings are on our Port Blair flight schedule page; the full 11-year analysis — and why the season keeps narrowing — is in our Andaman air connectivity study. We re-check against the winter filing when it publishes, and against live timetables when we book you.
When to book, to pay less
- Book 45–60 days out
That window usually lands the fair fares in our tables. Leaving it to the last few weeks is where the top of each range comes from.
- Peak fares run 2–3×
December–January flights can cost two to three times the normal fare. For Christmas and New Year travel, book by September — the seats and the sane prices both go early.
- Fly mid-week
Tuesday and Wednesday departures usually price lower than weekends, on the same route. If your dates flex by a day, it can move the fare more than any coupon.
- One airport, one runway
Port Blair has a single airport (IXZ) with limited daily slots. Flights fill; they do not add capacity on demand. Book the flight before the hotel.
The ship option, told straight
There is a sea route, and people ask about it, so here it is honestly. Government passenger ships sail to Port Blair from Chennai, Kolkata and Visakhapatnam. The fare is low — roughly ₹3,500 to ₹9,000 depending on class — but the trade-offs are real: the crossing takes about 60 hours, sailings are infrequent (a few a month, on a schedule that moves), and tickets are limited and slow to book.
| Sea route | Time at sea | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Chennai → Port Blair | ~60 hours | The most common sailing; still only a few a month. |
| Kolkata → Port Blair | ~60 hours | Runs on a rolling schedule, not daily. |
| Visakhapatnam → Port Blair | ~56–60 hours | The least frequent of the three. |
Our honest take: unless the voyage itself is the trip you want, fly — you would spend five days at sea on the round trip to save on a two-hour flight. The full picture — the three routes, how booking really works, and who should actually do it — is on our Andaman by ship guide.
Landing at Port Blair, and the one rule we ask you to follow
IXZ sits right inside Port Blair, so getting to your hotel is quick — most town hotels are a 10 to 20 minute drive, and it is a small single-terminal airport, so you are through and out fast. For our guests, a driver is waiting at the gate, so your first Andaman moment is a calm transfer rather than a haggle for a taxi.
The buffer rule · from experience
Do not plan a same-day flight-to-ferry connection. Land in Port Blair, spend Day 1 in Port Blair — Cellular Jail, Corbyn's Cove, a settled first night — and travel on to Havelock on Day 2. We learned this the hard way: a recent guest missed his Havelock ferry because his flight in was delayed by weather, and there was no later boat that day. Flights to Port Blair can slip, ferries leave on time and often sell out, and the two do not wait for each other. A buffer of a few hours is not enough — give it the night.
The same logic applies going home: keep a buffer night back in Port Blair before your flight out, so a disrupted return ferry from Havelock or Neil never puts your flight at risk. We build both buffers into every itinerary we plan — it is not padding, it is the difference between catching your boat and losing a day.
Onward: ferries between the islands
Once you have landed and had your Port Blair day, the islands are linked by ferry. Port Blair to Havelock (Swaraj Dweep) runs both government and private cruise services; Neil (Shaheed Dweep) is reached the same way. Private cruises are faster and bookable in advance; government ferries are cheaper but harder to time — which is another reason we sequence the ferries for our guests rather than leave them to chance at the jetty. The day-by-day flow is laid out on our Andaman itinerary guide, and for standalone ferry tickets our team also runs bookyourferry.com.
Ferries between the islands, live
Andaman ferry schedule · BookYourFerry.com — our founders' ferry-booking platform.
Getting-here questions, answered straight
How do you reach the Andaman Islands?
You fly. The only practical way to reach the Andamans is a flight to Port Blair — Veer Savarkar International Airport, airport code IXZ. There is no road or rail link to the mainland, and while passenger ships do run, they take about 60 hours and sail only a few times a month. For almost everyone, a flight is the answer, and Port Blair is the single gateway you arrive through.
Is there a direct flight to the Andaman Islands?
Yes. Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Delhi have daily direct flights to Port Blair right through the 2026 summer schedule — Chennai is the shortest at about two hours, Kolkata about two and a half. Two more cities join for the season: Hyderabad and Mumbai nonstops pause during the monsoon and resume from 1 October, and Visakhapatnam runs around three days a week. The direct map genuinely moves with the season — Mumbai has carried no nonstop passengers in the monsoon for two years running — so we confirm what is actually flying on your dates. There are no direct flights from smaller cities, and none from outside India.
Which cities have flights to Port Blair?
Seven cities appear in the 2026 summer schedule, but not all at once. Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Delhi fly daily through the whole season. Hyderabad and Mumbai are seasonal — both pause for the monsoon and resume from 1 October. Visakhapatnam runs around three days a week. Bhubaneswar had a service from March 2025 but it ended in January 2026. Chennai and Kolkata carry the most departures and are the safest bet if your dates cannot move; from anywhere else you connect through one of the direct cities. Our fare table above shows typical return prices by city.
Can you reach the Andamans by ship?
You can, but most people should not. Passenger ships run from Chennai, Kolkata and Visakhapatnam. They are cheap — roughly ₹3,500 to ₹9,000 — but slow, at about 60 hours at sea, and infrequent, with only a few sailings a month and a schedule that shifts. Tickets are limited and the booking process is its own small adventure. Unless the voyage itself is the point of your trip, fly.
Do you have to connect through Chennai or Kolkata?
Less often than the old advice says, but it depends on the month. From Bengaluru or Delhi you fly direct every day of the summer schedule. From Hyderabad or Mumbai you fly direct from October onward — during the monsoon those nonstops pause, and you connect via Chennai, Bengaluru or Kolkata. From smaller cities you connect year-round. This is exactly why we check your actual dates against the current filing rather than quoting a rule of thumb. International visitors do the same thing one step earlier: fly into an Indian metro and connect onward from there. No flight reaches the Andamans from outside India.
How far is the airport from Port Blair town?
Very close. Veer Savarkar Airport (IXZ) sits right inside Port Blair — most town hotels are a 10 to 20 minute drive, and even the far side of town is under half an hour. It is a small, single-terminal airport, so arrivals move quickly. For our guests we have a driver waiting at the gate, so the first thing that happens is a calm transfer, not a scramble for a cab.
Planning the rest of the trip? See what it all costs, the day-by-day itinerary, the entry permits and requirements, the weather, and the best time to visit.
How this page stays true
Written by the Tropical Andamans editorial team from our own experience moving guests to and around the islands · flight fares are market ranges verified by our Port Blair operations team, as of July 2026, rechecked quarterly and before each peak season. Fares, flight times and ship schedules move — they are guides, not guarantees. The day-1 buffer rule comes from a real guest who missed his ferry after a weather delay; it is the one piece of advice on this page we will not soften.
Let us plan the whole route.
Tell us your city and dates — we'll advise the best flights to Port Blair, build in the buffer days, and sequence your ferries so nothing is left to chance. No obligation.