Navi Mumbai airport will open for operations next May and construction of its second passenger terminal will commence two months later in July with the Adani group accelerating the development plans.

Adani Airport Holdings Limited CEO Arun Bansal disclosed this on Sunday after successful completion of a validation flight to test the approach and landing procedure at the airport. An IndiGo Airbus A320 aircraft operated the trial flight. Its report will now be submitted to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

“This is a major milestone and we are now one step closer to operationalising the airport, prioritising safety at every step,” Bansal said.

Bansal said the ambition is to inaugurate the airport by April 17. Domestic passenger and cargo operations are expected to start from mid-May and international operations from July-end. Discussions are already underway with airlines for development of schedules.

First phase

The airport’s first phase will see the opening of one runway and a terminal with passenger handling capacity of 20 million passengers per year.

Construction of the second terminal with annual handling capacity of 30 million passengers was supposed to start in 2026. Now the construction is being advanced by a year. This is to cater for high traffic volume that is anticipated due to the planned renovation of Mumbai airport’s terminal T1 . As a result Navi Mumbai airport expected to handle 20 million passengers by March 2026.

To share traffic

While 25-30 per cent of existing traffic from T1 will shift to Mumbai airport’s T2 terminal, the remainder will move to Navi Mumbai.

While this will create terminal capacity challenges (the second terminal in Navi Mumbai is expected to be ready in 3-4 years), the Adani group plans to adress the issue through efficient slot management and automation.