IAF marks milestone with first landing at Navi Mumbai Airport; commercial flights set for March 2025
IAF marks milestone with first landing at Navi Mumbai Airport; commercial flights set for March 2025.
The first flight to Navi Mumbai airport was conducted by the Indian Air Force (IAF), with an Airbus C-295 landing on the new runway 26 at 12:15 pm on Friday. Shortly after, a Sukhoi SU-30 flew over, which was met with applause from the audience. Commercial operations at the airport, which will be the second serving the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, are expected to start by the end of March next year, as announced by former civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia earlier this year.
The upcoming Navi Mumbai airport will initially feature a single runway and a terminal building shaped like a lotus, designed to accommodate 20 million passengers annually. The terminal, spanning 200,000 square meters, is being crafted in line with LEED Gold standards, emphasizing energy efficiency and environmental sustainability. Notable figures like Union civil aviation minister Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu and Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde attended the recent event.
During a site visit, Scindia highlighted the government’s “Gati Shakti model with multi-modal connectivity” for the airport, which will integrate road, rail, and metro links, with potential for water connections in the future. Presently, Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport serves as the sole air travel hub for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) with one runway and two terminals.
Upon full operation of both airports, the MMR area is expected to handle around 1,500 flights daily. The future plans for Navi Mumbai airport include multiple parallel runways, distinguishing it as the first in the MMR region to adopt such a setup, akin to airports in Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, and other major global aviation hubs.
Previously, Mumbai airport held the title of India’s busiest until 2011 when growth limitations led to Delhi surpassing it.
