The Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) has a new aviation gateway with the launch of Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) on Thursday. Developed and operated by Adani Airports, this greenfield airport has been a long-awaited dream and planning for over 30 years.
NMIA is being built in phases, with the initial phase designed to handle 20 million passengers per annum (MPPA). The airport has the potential to expand and scale up to 90 MPPA in the future, along with dedicated cargo terminals and multimodal connectivity.
This launch marks the shift towards a distributed, multi-airport model for Mumbai, similar to global city-regions like London, New York, Moscow, Tokyo, and Shanghai. It will help ease the congestion faced by the region for over a decade, as part of a distributed aviation framework aimed at improving capacity, operational resilience, and long-term scalability.
The first day of operations saw domestic services by IndiGo, Air India Express, Akasa Air, and Star Air, connecting NMIA to nine destinations across India. The airport handled 48 flights and served over 4,000 passengers, with peak traffic recorded between 05:00 and 07:00 hours.
Gautam Adani, Chairman of Adani Group, personally welcomed passengers from the inaugural flight and interacted with airport staff, frontline workers, and first-time flyers. He expressed his pride in the achievement and said, “NMIA stands as a promise of what the country can achieve when ambition is guided by purpose and delivered with speed and execution.
IndiGo became the first airline to land at NMIA, with their first flight arriving from Bengaluru in the morning. They will initially connect NMIA to over 10 key destinations across the nation, supporting the growth of this brand-new aviation gateway and complementing Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport.
Air India Express, on the other hand, operated their first flight from NMIA to Bengaluru. Managing Director Aloke Singh said, “The start of flights from Navi Mumbai is a milestone for the city and the region. Navi Mumbai is a key pillar of our dual-airport strategy, complementing our services from Mumbai airport, where we operate direct flights to 11 domestic and three international destinations.
Akasa Air, which operated scheduled flights connecting Navi Mumbai with several destinations, considers this station as one of their key growth pillars for years to come. Their inaugural flight departed from Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi and arrived at Navi Mumbai International Airport, with plans to progressively ramp up operations and scale up to 300 domestic and 50 international weekly departures.
Vinay Dube, Founder and CEO of Akasa Air, said, “Airports are not simply points of departure and arrival; they are long-term investments in the country’s economic and social mobility ecosystem.