Mumbai: With the Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) expected to be commissioned in some months, more and more airlines have begun announcing their plans for the greenfield facility. Air India Express on Tuesday announced 40 daily arrival and departure domestic flights connecting 15 cities in the airport’s first phase of operations.The Air India group said it plans to scale up Navi Mumbai operations to 55 daily departures by mid-2026, including up to 5 daily international flights, and further to 60 daily departures (and 60 arrivals) by winter 2026. A few months ago, IndiGo and Akasa Air announced plans to operate from day one of the commissioning of the Navi Mumbai airport.IndiGo planned 36 domestic departure and arrival flights connecting 15 cities from day one. By November, it planned to increase its flight frequency to 158 daily arrivals and departures, including 14 international departures. International operations are likely to begin only next year, said an aviation source. Akasa plans to start with 15 daily domestic flights, increasing it to over 40, including 8-10 international flights, by summer 2026. Navi Mumbai International Airport is being built in five phases, with the launch phase expected to accommodate 20 million passengers per annum (MPPA) and handle 0.5 million metric tons (MMT) of cargo. Upon full completion, NMIA will have capacity to serve 90 MPPA and handle 3.2 MMT of cargo annually.When ticket booking for flights operated to and from the Navi Mumbai airport opens, passengers will get to select flights that land or depart from either ‘BOM’, which is the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, or ‘NMI’, the new Navi Mumbai airport. The Mumbai airport, which handles an average of about 930 flights a day, will continue to handle both domestic and international flights. Currently, Mumbai airport handles about 55 million passengers per annum. By 2032, NMIA’s 90 million capacity, combined with Mumbai’s 55 million annual passengers, will have both these airports handle a total of 145 million passengers per annum.
