Regular flights to start from Navi Mumbai airport in 2025

The Airbus A320 aircraft along with its crew at NMIA on Sunday

Navi Mumbai International Airport is expected to be inaugurated on April 17, 2025, and become operational by the second half of May 2025. After the first phase of its opening, it is expected to handle approximately 20 to 30 air traffic movements per hour and cater to 20 million (200 lakh) passengers per year. Arun Bansal, CEO of Adani Airport Holdings Ltd (AAHL), specifically spoke to the print media and said, "Today (Sunday, December 29), we witnessed the landing of the first commercial aircraft, which is an integral part of the process to make the airport operational. We will now need to procure an aerodrome license from the DGCA. We are expecting to inaugurate the airport on April 17, 2025. After the inauguration, a 4-week time frame is required for the security sweep of the airport and to procure other documentation before it becomes operational."

The aircraft receiving a traditional water salute. Pics/Nimesh Dave

He added, "Domestic operations will begin in the second half of May 2025. We are in talks with both domestic and international airlines. Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai is facing some issues due to the single runway situation. The current Mumbai airport handles around 50 million passengers every year. Airlines are very eager to move some of their operations to Navi Mumbai airport to capture the additional passenger growth that Mumbai airport is seeing."

"This is a new airport, and it will have all the modern amenities, such as biometrics, terminal connectivity, and other state-of-the-art features. A single runway can handle almost 50 air traffic movements (ATMs) per hour, which is also the case at Mumbai airport. Extrapolating from this data, the terminal capacity will be a key factor in determining the number of ATMs per day. At Mumbai, the single runway is a constraint, whereas here, the capacity of the terminal will be a constraint until the next phase of the airport becomes operational. We are expecting an average of 20 to 30 ATMs per hour once phase one is operational," Bansal disclosed.

Meanwhile, sources from the Airport Authority of India (AAI) told mid-day, "Radar systems, like the ground radar and some other radars, still need to be installed at the airport. There are a few more technical instruments that also need to be installed. The work on the terminal building is in full swing and will be completed according to the timeline. However, these instruments require proper calibration, which takes time. The airport can still become operational before these systems are installed by using the Mumbai (VABB) radar in the initial stages until all the technical systems are installed and properly calibrated."