Mumbai Airport Operator Plans to Shift Flights to Navi Mumbai by 2027

Mumbai International Airport Ltd plans to suspend all flights to 14 international destinations in the 2027 summer schedule so that these cities are served only from the Navi Mumbai airport. Both airports are operated by Adani group entities. The affected destinations are Bahrain, Dammam, Dhaka, Doha, Fujairah, Jakarta, Jeddah, Kathmandu, Kuwait, Madinah, Muscat, Ras Al Khaimah, Riyadh, and Sharjah. These are the locations that Indian airlines IndiGo, Air India group, and Akasa Air have decided to serve from Navi Mumbai.

Operator Plans

In a letter to Civil Aviation Secretary Samir Kumar Sinha, MIAL Chief Airport Officer Vishnu Mohan Jha stated that airlines were told to voluntarily propose slots to shift by November 3. If they do not respond, the operator plans to cut slots for these 14 destinations to avoid splitting operations between two airports. MIAL intends to close the Mumbai airport ageing terminal 1 for redevelopment. The project is expected to impact 5 million passengers a year and take four years.

Airline Resistance

Indian carriers will shift flights for the 14 destinations to Navi Mumbai over the coming months to cover over 3 million of the displaced passengers. Foreign airlines are strongly opposing the move. The Adani group maintains that foreign carriers can either move flights to Navi Mumbai or suspend them until the revamped terminal opens. Meanwhile, the Mumbai airport Airline Operators Committee has written to Samir Kumar Sinha to seek a ministry intervention, calling the capacity reduction a unilateral decision and asking for historical slots to be confirmed.

Context

Managing slot allocations and terminal capacity is a major challenge for rapidly growing aviation markets like India. When airport operators undertake major upgrades, balancing traffic between existing hubs and new facilities often leads to friction with airlines over schedules and passenger convenience.