Now boarding: Adani's Navi Mumbai Airport debuts with arrival of IndiGo flight from Bengaluru

Adani Airports' Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) began its commercial operations on Thursday with the arrival of its first commercial flight, ending years long of hiatus and giving a major boost to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.

IndiGo flight 6E460 from Bengaluru touched down at 08:00 hrs and was welcomed with a ceremonial water cannon salute, a traditional aviation gesture reserved for inaugural landings.

Soon after, the airport recorded its first departure when IndiGo flight 6E882 took off for Hyderabad at 08:40 hrs, completing NMIA’s first arrival and departure cycle.



IndiGo, Air India Express, Akasa Air and Star Air will operate domestic services, connecting the new facility to nine destinations across India on the first day.

Air India Express has announced the launch of direct flights to Bengaluru and Delhi from the newly opened airport. Akasa Air also commenced operations from Navi Mumbai Airport, with the airline’s inaugural flight departed Delhi at 05:25 hrs and arrived at Navi Mumbai at 08:10 hrs, followed by a return flight that took off at 08:50 hrs and landed in Delhi at 11:15 hrs.

Akasa Air said it will operate scheduled services connecting Navi Mumbai with Goa, Delhi, Kochi and Ahmedabad, strengthening links between the Mumbai metropolitan region and key business, leisure and VFR destinations. The airline will begin flights to Goa and Delhi from December 25, Kochi from December 26, and Ahmedabad from December 31.

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The airport is set to handle 15 scheduled departures today, the airport said, adding that during the initial phase, the facility will operate for 12 hours -- between 8 am and 8 pm, with up to 24 scheduled daily departures to 13 destinations and the capability to manage up to 10 aircraft movements (arrivals and departures) per hour, it added.

The airport was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 8 this year. The start of scheduled passenger operations marks the formal entry of Navi Mumbai International Airport into India’s aviation network. The airport is expected to ease congestion at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport and add much-needed capacity to meet rising passenger demand in the region.

The first phase of the five-phased airport was built at Rs 19,650 crore.

Once all five phases of the airport are completed, it will be catering to 90 million passengers annually, along with dedicated cargo terminals and multimodal connectivity.

The entire project is being developed in multiple phases under a special purpose vehicle, Navi Mumbai International Airport Ltd (NMIAL), in which the Adani Group has a 74 per cent stake, and the remaining 26 per cent is owned by CIDCO.

From February next year, operations are planned to progressively scale up to round-the-clock services.