IndiGo and Air India Group on Sunday announced plans to shift about one-third of their international flights from Mumbai airport to Navi Mumbai between January and the summer of next year.
This is in contrast to foreign carriers who have opposed the proposed relocation.
IndiGo currently operates 233 international departures a week from Mumbai airport, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium's data. India’s largest airline on Sunday announced plans to transfer 12 daily departures, or 84 a week, to Navi Mumbai. This accounts for 36.1 per cent of its current international departures.
Air India Group — which includes Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express — currently operates 134 weekly international departures from Mumbai, according to Cirium's data. On Sunday, it named six destinations whose services it plans to shift to the new airport.
These destinations account for 46 weekly departures in the current schedule, or 34.3 per cent of the group’s total.
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Therefore, both the major Indian carriers have effectively agreed to Mumbai International Airport Limited's (MIAL) long-standing demand to shift about one-third of their international flights to the new airport.
Both airport operators — MIAL as well as Navi Mumbai International Airport Limited (NMIAL) — are controlled by the Adani Group.
Over the past several weeks, airlines had presented a united front against MIAL’s plan to shift one-third of each airline’s international flights to Navi Mumbai. This was to make way for the demolition and reconstruction of Terminal 1 at Mumbai airport.
MIAL had proposed shifting 265 of 770 weekly international departures from Mumbai to Navi Mumbai. The Airline Operators Committee (AOC), representing airlines at Mumbai airport, had been rejecting these changes till now.
Foreign carriers have raised strong objections. Air France-KLM said on September 30 that splitting its passenger operations between the two airports did not make operational sense, while Emirates said on October 14 that Navi Mumbai needed more supporting facilities before it could handle large-scale international operations.
IndiGo on Sunday said it plans to begin international operations from Navi Mumbai in February 2027 and progressively transfer 12 daily international departures from Mumbai airport between February and July. The services cover 11 destinations, including Bahrain, Riyadh, Dammam, Jeddah, Madinah, Kuwait, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah, Muscat, Dhaka and Jakarta.
The airline will also introduce a daily service to Kathmandu, taking its international network from Navi Mumbai to 12 destinations.
IndiGo will also shift the domestic flights needed to connect passengers with these international services.
The airline said the transition would free up capacity at Mumbai airport for it to expand its international network in 2027. These include new services across Asia, Africa and Europe using its expanding fleet of Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft.
This includes the A321XLR, a long-range version of the A321.
IndiGo and Adani Airport Holdings Limited (AAHL), in a joint statement, said: “The phased transition is intended to support a transparent, equitable and proportionate rebalancing of capacity across Mumbai’s dual airport system, taking into account each airline’s presence at the Mumbai airport.”
Air India Group on Sunday said it plans to progressively shift services to six destinations — Jeddah, Riyadh, Dammam, Doha, Muscat and Sharjah — to Navi Mumbai.
The process is expected to be completed by the summer 2027 schedule.
The group said Air India Express would start four daily domestic flights from Navi Mumbai in December 2026. Services to Kuwait and existing services to Oman are scheduled to begin shifting from January 2027, with the Kuwait transition subject to the necessary approvals.
The redevelopment of Terminal 1 at Mumbai airport is expected to require capacity for around 5 million passengers a year to be taken out of operation from the summer 2027 schedule.
MIAL has said it would maintain and restore historical slots once Terminal 1 is redeveloped and becomes operational again. This, it expects by 2030.
Airlines till now were unitedly questioning the basis for the proposed shift and were seeking detailed capacity data for each terminal at the Mumbai airport. In a subsequent communication on last Monday, MIAL clearly said individual airlines were free to decide whether to relocate some or all of their operations to Navi Mumbai, temporarily suspend operations at Mumbai airport until Terminal 1 reopens, or pursue other alternatives.