Adani Airport to go ahead with Mumbai redevelopment; airlines reject proposal

New Delhi: Adani Airport said it will go ahead with the planned redevelopment of Mumbai airport’s Terminal 1 from January 2027, saying majority of the airport’s passenger traffic will remain unaffected during the phased redevelopment.

Airlines, meanwhile, have rejected its plan to temporarily cut international departure slots at Mumbai. They have also refused to shift a third of their international operations to Navi Mumbai, the second airport about 50 km away from the existing one.

Mumbai and Navi Mumbai airports are both operated by Adani Airport Holdings Ltd (AAHL), the country’s second-largest airport operator by revenue after GMR Airports. It manages eight airports and 23% of India’s domestic air passenger traffic .

Mumbai airport handled nearly 16 million international passenger traffic in FY26.

Around 99% of passenger traffic at Mumbai airport – which has a max capacity of 55 million annually – will remain unaffected, Adani Airports said in a media statement on Saturday.

For international passengers shifted to Navi Mumbai, the airport operator plans to offer “cash vouchers” to offset the difference in the User Development Fee (UDF) levied at Navi Mumbai and Mumbai airports. Navi Mumbai is also offering a 100% discount on landing fees for new international flights.

UDF, which is part of the ticket price, is significantly higher at Navi Mumbai airport, which effectively could make flying to and from the second airport costlier.

Adani Airports chief executive Arun Bansal has also assured airlines that the shift to Navi Mumbai airport is temporary. “The transition to Navi Mumbai Airport is temporary and does not represent a permanent shift of Mumbai Airport traffic,” he said as per the statement issue by Adani Airport.

Airlines have been asked to shift partial operations from 25 October.

Adani Airport said around 5 million of Mumbai airport’s total annual passengers, or about 9% of traffic, will be temporarily “deoperationalised” as a portion of the terminal—the north section of Terminal 1B—is set for redevelopment.

Safety concerns around the 60-year-old terminal building have necessitated phase-wise redevelopment, Adani Airports said. The first phase covers a third of the airport’s capacity.

“91% of Mumbai Airport’s passenger traffic will remain unaffected even as we undertake redevelopment of the age-old infrastructure that was in urgent need of repairs,” Bansal said.

The redevelopment is scheduled to begin in January 2027 and will eventually increase Terminal 1’s capacity by 33% to 20 million passengers a year from 15 million.

Adani Airports said it will restore all historical slots, along with additional slots, once the redeveloped terminal is operational.

In the interim, however, the airport operator wants airlines to shift a portion of their international operations to Navi Mumbai.

Adani Airport has proposed temporarily discontinuing 265 of 770 weekly international departure slots at Mumbai’s Terminal 2 from 25 October, with the freed-up capacity to be used to accommodate domestic traffic shifted from Terminal 1.

The proposed cuts affect 46 airlines, according to two people familiar with the developments.

IndiGo faces the discontinuation of 74 of its 224 weekly international departure slots, while Air India would lose 33 of 100. Akasa Air would lose 11 of 32 and Air India Express seven of 21. Emirates and Etihad Airways would each lose 10 of their 28 weekly slots, while British Airways would lose seven.

Airlines reject proposal

In a 2 October communication to Mumbai airport, reviewed by Mint, the Airline Operators Committee-Mumbai (AOC-Mumbai) said its members did not accept the proposed reduction, cancellation or withdrawal of established international departure slots.

The airlines said their support for Terminal 1 redevelopment could not be construed as consent to the proposed reduction in international slots and questioned the basis for the change in MIAL’s approach—from an earlier proposal to shift existing operations to Navi Mumbai to the current proposal to reduce international departure capacity at Mumbai.

The AOC has sought the technical and operational basis for the 33% reduction, including MIAL’s capacity assessment, proposed Terminal 2 enhancements and the demand-capacity analysis supporting the move.

It has also escalated the matter to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA).

The airlines’ objection comes as the airport operator moves closer to implementing the transition plan.

Adani Airport has asked carriers to identify by 4 pm on 6 October which international departure slots they want temporarily discontinued. If airlines do not respond, Adani Airport has said it will select the slots itself based on operational, capacity and implementation considerations. Mint has reviewed a copy of that communication too.

The airport operator had previously defended the transition plan, saying Navi Mumbai International Airport provides the capacity needed to undertake the Mumbai redevelopment without shutting Terminal 1 entirely.

The airport operator said consultations with airlines on the future of Terminal 1 had been ongoing since 2020 and that the redevelopment had been presented to the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA)—the airport tariff regulator—and incorporated into the approved tariff framework.

The dispute comes amid wider airline resistance to a forced shift of operations to Navi Mumbai.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has opposed forced airline relocations, while Air France-KLM has told Mint that splitting its passenger operations between Mumbai and Navi Mumbai is not an option.