Air India likely to make the Navi Mumbai airport a global hub

In a significant step to ramp up its global presence, Air India is in talks with Adani Airports to make the upcoming Navi Mumbai airport a hub for its international operations. The Navi Mumbai airport, which is controlled by Adani Airports Holdings (AAHL) is expected to commence commercial operations from mid-November. With capacity constraints at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, both domestic and international flights will start from the opening day at the new facility.

“Terminal 2 at the Navi Mumbai airport will be designed and built for hub operations from Day 1. AAHL is working with Air India for their design input and to help them make it a hub for their international operations,” an industry source said.

The existing infrastructure at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) is already stretched to its limits with regards to passenger handling capacity, and there is no room for making any design and structural changes at the airport.

The source further said, “Navi Mumbai airport will eventually become the international hub. It is a modern airport compared to CSMIA. There cannot be too many changes at terminal 2 at CSMIA. So, eventually you will have international operations becoming more dominant at the Navi Mumbai airport.”

However, even with a rated capacity of 20-23 million at Terminal 1, AAHL believes that it will run out of this capacity within the first six months of operations at the Navi Mumbai airport.

The company has therefore already kick-started work on the second terminal which is expected to start operations in 2029. The combined capacity of both the terminals will be 60 million supported by two operational runways.