A 6 AM Colombo departure means a midnight start from Pune — six hours of travel for a flight under three. The 8 PM service is worth the fare difference.
Doorstep pickup anywhere in Pune · pay after the ride
Quick answer
For a Colombo flight from Mumbai airport, leave Pune about 7 hours before departure — 3.5 hours driving, 3 hours for international check-in and 0.5 hours contingency. The busiest Colombo departure is 3:00 AM, so you would leave Pune by 8:00 PM the previous day. An Orbitmiles cab from Pune to CSMIA Terminal 2 is a fixed ₹2,700 for up to 150 km, including all Expressway and Atal Setu tolls, with doorstep pickup anywhere in Pune and no night surcharge. Payment is after the ride by UPI, card or cash. Book at orbitmiles.in/book or WhatsApp +91 84848 76369.
Colombo is a short hop with awkward timing. The departures are 3 AM and 6 AM, with a single 8 PM evening service, so unless you can get on that evening flight you are looking at an overnight or pre-dawn run from Pune for a flight that lasts under three hours.
Colombo departs at 03:00 and 06:00, with one 20:00 evening service. Both morning options require an overnight or pre-dawn run from Pune — there is no comfortable daytime departure on this route.
Departure times observed on the CSMIA board across 11-16 August 2026 (21 Colombo departures). Each row works back from the flight: 3 hours for international check-in, the drive, and 0.5 hours of contingency.
| Flight departs | Check in by | Leave Pune by | Drive |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3:00 AM | 12:00 AM | 8:00 PM day before | ~3.5 hrs (traffic) |
| 6:00 AM | 3:00 AM | 12:00 AM overnight start | ~2.5 hrs (clear roads) |
| 8:00 PM | 5:00 PM | 1:00 PM | ~3.5 hrs (traffic) |
Note the day-before rows. This is the single most common way people miss an international flight from Pune — a 6:00 AM departure means being on the expressway the previous evening, not on the morning of your ticket date. We schedule the pickup from your flight time, so tell us the flight rather than a pickup time and we will work it back for you.
Give us the flight number, not a pickup time. For the 3:00 AM departure that means a 8:00 PM pickup the previous day — we apply the check-in window, the realistic drive time for that hour and a buffer, then confirm it back to you.
Hinjawadi, Kharadi, Baner, Koregaon Park, Magarpatta, Wakad or anywhere else — the driver comes to your address. On this route that matters: nobody should be hauling luggage to a pickup point in the middle of the night.
The awkward Colombo departure times cost exactly the same as the convenient ones. A 8:00 PM pickup is ₹2,700, the same as a midday one.
All SriLankan Airlines and other international services leave from T2. The driver takes you to the correct departure level rather than the arrivals kerb, which on a busy CSMIA day saves a long walk with bags.
The imbalance on this route is what makes it worth planning: you spend more time getting to the aircraft than on it. A 06:00 departure needs a midnight start from Pune, which is six hours of travel and waiting for a 2 hour 50 minute flight. That maths pushes some passengers towards the 20:00 evening service even at a higher fare, and on balance we think they are right. If you are on a morning bank anyway, the one genuine advantage is that the overnight expressway run is the fastest and least stressful drive of the day — no traffic, no ghat-section crawl, about 2.5 hours door to terminal. Travel light if you can: Colombo is a short-haul route where many passengers carry hand baggage only, and if you have no checked bags you can arrive closer to departure than the three-hour international rule of thumb suggests. Tell us and we will adjust the pickup accordingly rather than applying the default.
Orbitmiles charges nothing when you book — no advance and no card held. You settle up once you have been dropped at the terminal, by whichever method suits.
Travelling for work? We invoice companies monthly with GST — ask us to set up an account and your airport runs can be billed rather than expensed.
Tell us your Colombo flight and we work the pickup time back from it. The car is confirmed in advance, and you pay nothing until the journey is done.
Around midnight. Check-in for a 6 AM departure means being at Terminal 2 by 3 AM, and the overnight drive takes about 2.5 hours on clear roads plus a contingency buffer.
The 8 PM evening service. That allows a daylight drive from Pune leaving around 1 PM, and avoids an overnight or pre-dawn journey entirely. The 3 AM and 6 AM banks both require travelling at night.
Possibly. Without checked bags you can often arrive closer to departure than the standard three-hour international window. Tell us at booking and we will adjust the pickup rather than applying the default lead time.
SriLankan Airlines, IndiGo and Air India, giving around 25 departures a week. Flight time is about 2 hours 50 minutes — one of the shortest international routes from Mumbai.
A fixed ₹2,700 for up to 150 km, including doorstep pickup anywhere in Pune, all tolls, and drop at CSMIA Terminal 2. No night surcharge for a midnight or pre-dawn pickup.
It is the easiest drive of the day — the expressway is clear, there is no ghat-section congestion, and the run takes about 2.5 hours. Most passengers sleep. The vehicle is GPS tracked and you can share a live trip link.