Navi Mumbai airport set to begin commercial ops in May 2025: AAHL

The airport, which is currently under construction, will start international operations by July next year, said Arun Bansal, chief executive officer (CEO), AAHL

(This report has been updated)

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  Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIAL) is set to be inaugurated in April next year, followed by the launch of commercial operations in May, said a senior executive from the Adani Airport Holdings (AAHL), after the first commercial validation test was conducted at the under-construction airport on Sunday.

 

The airport will start international operations by July next year, said Arun Bansal, chief executive officer, AAHL, a subsidiary of Adani Enterprises, the flagship company of the Adani Group.

 

“After the inauguration on April 17th, we need roughly about four weeks for security sweep and other requirements of the airport procedures which is why we are looking at the second half of May 2025 for domestic operations,” he told reporters after the IndiGo A320 6E9165 aircraft with no passengers on board touched down at 1:32 pm at NMIAL on Sunday.

 

 

The plane took off from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) in Mumbai at around 12:30 pm.

 

“The first validation flight has happened today. We now need to get a formal aerodrome licence from the DGCA,” Bansal said. The airport would apply for the aerodrome permit in February. 

 

A validation landing assesses new flight instruments installed at an aerodrome. It confirms operational safety for aircraft procedures as part of an aerodrome certification process.  "A historic milestone as Navi Mumbai International Airport welcomed its first commercial validation flight! Proud of our team's hard work and grateful for our stakeholders' unwavering support," said Jeet Advani, Director, AAHL in a post on social media platform X.   In its first phase of operations, the airport will have a capacity of handling 20 million passengers annually. It is projected to handle about eight to ten million passengers for domestic operations within the first six months of its launch.

 

NMIAL will be the second airport to serve the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Currently, CSMIA is the only operational airport serving the Mumbai region. The CSMIA handles over 50 million passengers annually.

 

“There is a pent-up demand of almost 60-65 million today which means that 15 million passengers from Mumbai region travel to other airports. Navi Mumbai Airport will cater to and augment that capacity,” the executive added.

 

Following the landing of the commercial jet, “NMIA’s established flight procedures will be published in the Electronic Aeronautical Information Publication for international promulgation,” the airport said in a release.

 

The airport conducted the flight calibration of the Instrument Landing System (ILS) and Precision Approach Path Indicator (PAPI), subsequently drafting instrument approach procedures to prepare itself for the arrival of the validation flight.

 

In October, the Airbus C-295 of the Indian Air Force (IAF) landed at the airport, marking the first touchdown of any flight at the aerodrome.

 

Earlier, aviation consultancy firm CAPA, in its report published in October 2023, stated that Navi Mumbai airport’s construction was facing delays, and therefore, was likely to commence commercial operations in 2025 instead of 2024.

In January, former civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia revised the timeline for the airport’s operational launch to March 2025 from December 2024. With the latest announcement, the operational launch has been pushed further to May 2025.

 

The entire construction of the airport is expected to be completed in five phases. The project is expected to cost around Rs 18,000 crore. It is the first airport in the country to have multi-modal connectivity. This includes a linkage to the project via road, rail, and a metro system. In the near future, it is set to be connected via a waterway. MIAL is a jointly owned subsidiary of Adani Airport Holdings Limited and the Airports Authority of India (AAI).