Navi Mumbai Airport joins India’s aviation map with first passenger flights
New Delhi, December 26. The long-awaited Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) officially joined India’s commercial aviation network on December 25 as it handled its first scheduled passenger services, marking a landmark moment for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
The opening flight was IndiGo’s 6E460 from Bengaluru, which landed at 8 am to a ceremonial water-cannon salute. This was followed by the airport’s first departure – an IndiGo service to Hyderabad – at 8:40 am. On its first day of operations, NMIA handled 48 flights to and from nine domestic destinations, carrying more than 4,000 passengers, with the busiest traffic window between 5 pm and 7 pm.
The launch represents a significant boost to air connectivity in the Mumbai region, which has long been stretched by the capacity limits of the existing airport, operating on a single runway and handling about 950 flights every day.
The sense of novelty was evident even among aviation professionals.
“For us, the new airport is simply called ‘Navi’,” said a pilot, referring to the official call sign used in radio communications.
An aviation official added, “When the first flight was transferred to the Navi Mumbai control tower, we told the pilots, ‘Welcome to Navi’.”
However, the first day was not without glitches. Some passengers complained of inadequate or confusing road signage, which led several vehicles to mistakenly reach the cargo terminal before locating the passenger terminal.
