The outer structure of Navi Mumbai International Airport's first terminal building is almost ready. Exactly behind the under-construction building, stands a partially demolished hill. Executives from the airport company are now hopeful the hill will be flattened by mid-January, paving the way for the first commercial take-off by December next year.
Nearly three decades after the ambitious project was first conceived to decongest the existing airport in the financial capital, the greenfield Navi Mumbai International Airport became a reality on Thursday as an IndiGo Airbus A320 from Bengaluru landed on the tarmac at 8 am amid a traditional water cannon salute.
Reconstruction of the terminal is expected to be completed by September 2028.
If implemented in India, the service will allow passengers book security screening slots in advance, helping cut down wait times in long queues.
It is the first airport in the country to have multi-modal connectivity. This includes a linkage to the project via road, rail, and a metro system.
Celebi Airport Services India withdrew its plea in the Bombay High Court against the revocation of its security clearance by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) following Operation Sindoor.
The airline plans to scale up its operations at NMIA significantly, from 36 air traffic movements (ATMs) daily on the opening day to 79 daily departures (158 ATMs), including 14 international departures by November this year.
Earlier in the day, an IndiGo A320 passenger aircraft landed successfully at 1.32 pm at runway 08/26 of the under-construction Navi Mumbai International Airport, paving the way for the Navi Mumbai International Airport Ltd (NMIAL) to seek an aerodrome licence from the aviation safety regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to start commercial flight services.
DGCA provided temporary relief to IndiGo, which is partially owned by Rahul Bhatia, by rolling back the night duty definition to 12 am-5 am from 12 am-6 am earlier, and allowing its pilots to do six night-landings from two earlier, besides other relaxations.
Tata Group's infrastructure and construction arm, Tata Projects, has bagged the contract to construct the upcoming Noida International Airport at Jewar, in Uttar Pradesh. As part of the contract, Tata Projects will construct the terminal, runway, airside infrastructure, roads, utilities, landside facilities and other ancillary buildings at the airport, Yamuna International Airport Private Limited (YIAPL) said in a statement on Friday. YIAPL is a 100 per cent subsidiary of Swiss developer Zurich Airport International AG and has been incorporated as a Special Purpose Vehicle to develop Noida International Airport. In 2019, Zurich Airport International AG won the bid to develop the airport.
With 7.64 million seats, the Mumbai-Delhi route in 2025 was the eighth busiest route in the world.
A court in Ahmedabad in Gujarat has directed the Congress and four of its leaders to remove a deep fake video of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and industrialist Gautam Adani from social media platforms.
Pinky Mali was an attendant on the Learjet 46, operated by Delhi-based VSR Ventures, that crash-landed at the Baramati airport
'In any aviation emergency, the first rule is aviate -- fly the aircraft.' 'The fact that the commander's voice is not on the recording simply means he was focused entirely on flying. It does not imply anything more than that.'
Taking a serious note of the situation, the civil aviation ministry said it has invoked regulatory powers to ensure fair and reasonable fares across all affected routes.
Adani group on Tuesday said it has taken over the management of Mumbai International airport from the GVK group. The group last August had announced that it would acquire GVK Group's stake in Mumbai airport. Adani group will have 74 per cent stake in Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, post the stake purchase transaction, with 50.5 per cent being bought from GVK group and 23.5 per cent from minority partners including Airports Company South Africa (ACSA), and Bidvest Group, it had said.
They shouted slogans against the signboard when the airport is named after Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation-appointed panel investigating the flight disruptions at IndiGo is likely to summon the airline's CEO Pieter Elbers and Chief Operating Officer Isidre Porqueras on Wednesday as part of the ongoing probe, according to a source on Monday.
The DGCA has formed two specialised teams to internally monitor IndiGo's daily operations.
Air India on Wednesday said it has cancelled its Lucknow-Mumbai flight scheduled for June 17 due to 'operational reasons' and the ripple effect of flight diversions.
Indigo airlines cancelled 13 flights from Hyderabad airport, causing chaos and frustration among passengers. The cancellations were attributed to technology and operational issues.
Navi Mumbai airport's construction is facing delays, and is likely to commence commercial operations in 2025 instead of 2024, aviation consultancy firm CAPA has said in a report. When asked about this matter, the Adani Group told Business Standard that the Navi Mumbai airport project is "being executed as per scheduled implementation plan and will be operational by the original target date of December, 2024, without any delay". Navi Mumbai International Airport Limited (NMIAL), responsible for both the construction and operation of the airport, is a subsidiary of the Adani Group.
The Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) on Sunday said Manoj Kumar, 42, who was scheduled to fly from Cochin to Mumbai by an Air India flight on Sunday morning made an 'alarming' comment to a Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) officer at the x-ray baggage inspection counter.
'The real story of 2025 is that India officially stopped being a 'market of the future' and started acting as the world's primary economic engine.'
The Mumbai international airport has received an email threatening to blow up its Terminal 2, with the sender demanding one million dollars in Bitcoin to prevent the blast, the police said on Friday.
The slot charge has been included in Mumbai International Airport Limited's rate revision proposal.
Pilots' body the Federation of Indian Pilots (FIP) has alleged that IndiGo, despite getting a two-year preparatory window before the full implementation of new flight duty and rest period norms for cockpit crew, "inexplicably" adopted a "hiring freeze."
IndiGo cancelled over 1,000 flights on Friday and said operations are expected to normalise in the next 10 days, as the country's largest airline received flight duty norms relaxation from watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), which will probe the disruptions that have impacted thousands of passengers for four straight days.
Family members alleged medical negligence on part of the airport, a charge which the airport authorities denied.
'It has got to be the biggest error in aviation. If it is the biggest error, then all those individuals in positions of power should be removed because they have caused the biggest meltdown in Indian aviation history.'
British architecture firm Zaha Hadid Architects bagged the contract from Navi Mumbai International Airport Limited after a 12-week design competition, and will design the new airport's Terminal 1 and air traffic control tower.
The primary drivers: Geopolitical disruptions inflating fuel and operational costs, and a surge in travel demand.
On an average, there are 970 flight arrivals and departures at the Mumbai airport every day.
"At 9.04 pm yesterday, a Jet Airways flight 9W 616 (Kolkata-Mumbai) while on approach to landing was asked to go around to allow IndiGo Mumbai-Bangalore flight (6E-415) to cross the runway at the intersection point," MIAL said.
Faced with a funding gap of Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 2 billion), Mumbai Airport, the country's busiest, has sought government approval to levy an airport development fee to compensate the gap, a top airport official said.
Turkiye and Azerbaijan backed Pakistan and condemned India's recent strikes on terror camps in that country and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir under Operation Sindoor.
Any rise in charges has to be approved by the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority, which is examining MIAL's proposal.
MIAL's move comes at a time when the national carrier is in the process of joining Star Alliance.
While recalling the order, the bench agreed to the contention of the law officer that there was a "breach of principle of natural justice" as the government department was not accorded the hearing.
Mumbai Airport plans to invest Rs 22.8 billion (Rs 2,280 crore) this fiscal year as against the Rs 13.06 billion (Rs 1,306 crore) spent in FY10 on modernisation and development work.
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