Flying to Kolkata on a budget
Kolkata is a mid-sized city served by 1 airport in India. Across the city's airports, around 19 airlines operate roughly 97 documented route pairings, connecting Kolkata to approximately 25 direct destinations worldwide. For budget travellers, having multiple airports in one city is usually good news. Secondary airports tend to host the lowest-cost carriers and the cheapest fares, but the trade-off is a slower (and sometimes pricier) ground transfer to the city centre.
The cheapest combination of base fare plus ground transport almost never lives at the same airport. As a rule of thumb, fly into the most-served airport when you have luggage, late arrival times, or a fixed work meeting. Fly into the cheapest secondary airport when you are travelling light, have flexible plans, and are arriving mid-day with the buses still running. We break down the airports below in order of route volume, so you can quickly see which carriers and destinations each one specialises in.
Airports serving Kolkata
Tips for landing in Kolkata cheap
- Compare airports before booking. The headline-cheapest fare into the secondary airport is sometimes wiped out by a EUR 20+ ground transfer to the city centre.
- Check the last public-transport time. Late arrivals can force a pricey taxi if you miss the bus or train; verify against the inbound landing time, not the scheduled.
- Pre-book ground transport for arrival. A pre-paid bus ticket bought online is usually the cheapest predictable option; airport-counter taxi rates can run two to three times the metered fare.
- If you have multiple airports, fly in and out of different ones. Use Google Flights' multi-city search to capture the cheapest combination of one-ways across two airports.
- Watch for currency exchange traps. The airport bureaux are the worst place to change money; withdraw from a major-bank ATM in arrivals instead.
Top destinations from Kolkata
| Code | City | Country |
|---|---|---|
| DEL | Delhi | India |
| GAU | Guwahati | India |
| IXB | Baghdogra | India |
| DAC | Dhaka | Bangladesh |
| BLR | Bangalore | India |
| BOM | Mumbai | India |
| IXA | Agartala | India |
| IXZ | Port Blair | India |
| PAT | Patina | India |
| SIN | Singapore | Singapore |
| HYD | Hyderabad | India |
| IXR | Ranchi | India |
| MAA | Madras | India |
| AJL | Aizwal | India |
| IXS | Silchar | India |
| CGP | Chittagong | Bangladesh |
| AMD | Ahmedabad | India |
| BKK | Bangkok | Thailand |
| DIB | Mohanbari | India |
| IMF | Imphal | India |
Airlines flying from Kolkata
China Eastern Airlines (MU)
China
Air India Limited (AI)
India
Jet Airways (9W)
India
Emirates (EK)
United Arab Emirates
Qatar Airways (QR)
Qatar
IndiGo Airlines (6E)
India · Budget
Cathay Pacific (CX)
Hong Kong SAR of China
Singapore Airlines Cargo (SQ)
Singapore
Spicejet (SG)
India · Budget
Thai Airways International (TG)
Thailand · Budget
Air Sahara (S2)
India
AirAsia (AK)
Malaysia · Budget
Dragonair (KA)
DRAGON
SilkAir (MI)
Singapore
Gujarat Airways (G8)
India · Budget
Biman Bangladesh Airlines (BG)
Bangladesh
United Airways (4H)
Bangladesh
Druk Air (KB)
Bhutan