Mumbai International Airport Ltd plans to shift all flights on 14 international routes to Navi Mumbai airport if airlines do not submit relocation plans. MIAL said this move helps free up capacity for terminal redevelopment. Many foreign carriers currently oppose the proposal, asking for more time and better coordination instead.
Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) has proposed shifting all flights to 14 international destinations from Mumbai airport to Navi Mumbai airport if airlines fail to submit voluntary relocation plans, as it seeks to free up capacity for terminal redevelopment.
The 14 destinations are Bahrain, Dammam, Dhaka, Doha, Fujairah, Jakarta, Jeddah, Kathmandu, Kuwait City, Madinah, Muscat, Ras Al Khaimah, Riyadh and Sharjah.
Sixteen airlines operate a total of 205 weekly flights from Mumbai to these 14 international destinations, data from aviation analytics firm Cirium showed. Of these, 12 airlines operating 102 weekly flights are yet to publicly agree to shift their services to Navi Mumbai. These are Air Arabia, Gulf Air, Kuwait Airways, Oman Air, Saudia, Qatar Airways, Riyadh Air, Jazeera Airways, SalamAir, Flyadeal, Flynas and Nepal Airlines.
For the past few months, MIAL and foreign airlines have been at loggerheads over the airport operator's proposal to relocate one-third of all international flights from Mumbai to the Navi Mumbai airport. Both airports are managed by Adani Group-controlled entities. MIAL wants to relocate annual passenger capacity of 5 million passengers as it has to redevelop Terminal 1 at Mumbai airport due to safety concerns. Foreign carriers are opposing this move and asking for more time and better coordination.
In a letter dated October 30 to the MoCA, MIAL said Indian airlines had already announced plans to shift some of their services to Navi Mumbai during the summer schedule, which will start at the end of March. Their plans account for around three million passengers per annum (MPPA). To meet its target of temporarily shifting five MPPA from Mumbai, MIAL has asked airlines to propose additional flights that can be moved from the Mumbai airport.
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If airlines do not submit proposals, MIAL said it plans to temporarily shift "all flights from Mumbai to the 14 destinations". This would ensure that "all flights from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) to these international destinations are available at one airport instead of being split at two airports in the same region", it added.
"This approach would ensure seamless onward connections, minimal passenger inconvenience, and integrated travel experience...We request the kind support and guidance of the MoCA in implementing the same," MIAL stated.
The Mumbai airport currently has an annual passenger-handling capacity of around 55 million, and the temporary reduction would leave 91 per cent of this capacity unaffected, it said.
The redevelopment of Terminal 1 at the old airport, it said, had been a deferred issue for more than nine years. It referred to structural audit reports prepared by Structwel in August 2017 and IIT Bombay in August 2024, which it said had been examined before the finalisation of the airport's tariff order.
The temporary reduction in traffic and the redevelopment plans have already been factored into the 2025 tariff order for Mumbai airport, issued by the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (AERA).
MIAL also said the temporary transfer of flights was part of consultations with stakeholders and was not a unilateral or unconsulted decision. It said it had held consultations with airlines since 2020, including meetings with the Mumbai Airport Operators Committee (AOC) on October 13 and October 28 this year.
MIAL said the temporary transfer of historical airport slots would be fully reversed, with the slots restored to Mumbai airport once the expansion of Terminal 2 is completed in 2029. Historical slots refer to the flight timings that airlines have been operating at an airport and are allowed to retain under applicable rules.
To attract international airlines to Navi Mumbai, the airport operator has also announced discounts on aircraft landing charges. Under its modified Variable Tariff Plan, new international routes will receive discounts in the first two years. Long-haul flights, which are services covering distances of more than 5,000 km, will receive additional discounts in the third year.
MIAL also said it was paying cash vouchers to international passengers to offset the difference in user development fees (UDF) between Mumbai and Navi Mumbai airports. UDF is a charge collected from passengers to help airports recover the cost of developing and maintaining infrastructure.
In its letter, MIAL said the transition plans announced by IndiGo, Air India Group and Akasa Air accounted for around three MPPA. IndiGo plans to shift 12 daily international departures from Mumbai to NMIA, covering services to 11 destinations, with an additional daily Kathmandu service. The airline has said the transition would take place gradually between February and July 2027.
Air India Group plans to shift some of its Air India Express services to Jeddah, Riyadh, Dammam, Doha, Muscat and Sharjah. The transition is expected to be completed by the Northern Summer 2027 season. Akasa Air, meanwhile, announced that it would shift its Mumbai-Jeddah operations to NMIA from December 2026.