Air India Express to begin operations from Navi Mumbai airport: Check details of daily routes, flights, cities, more

The Air India Group has announced that it will commence services at the new Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) with its low-cost service carrier Air India Express, according to a PTI report.

In phase 1 of the plan, AI Express will start commercial flight operations from Navi Mumbai with 20 daily departures to more than 15 cities across India, as per the statement. It added that the aim is to scale to 55 daily departures — including five international stops — by mid-2026.

In a statement, Air India's MD and CEO, Campbell Wilson, said that the airline is “happy to work with” Adani Airports to develop NMIA “as a point that connects to the rest of India” and among India's key global transit hubs “for both — passengers and cargo — given its strategic geographical location”.

What are Air India's plans? Flights, routes, more

• In the first phase, AI Express will operate 20 daily departures or 40 Air Traffic Movements (ATMs) to and from the new airport, connecting to 15 Indian cities.
• By winter 2026, the Air India Group aims to expand operations to 60 daily departures (120 ATMs) from the facility.
• The goal is to “seamlessly connecting passengers to key domestic and international destinations”. Details of the specific cities and flight numbers were not yet available.
• The company said operations at NMIA will “significantly enhance connectivity to and from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) to destinations within and outside India”.

About Navi Mumbai International Airport: Preview

Set for inauguration later this month, the NMIA is co-owned by the Adani Group and the City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra. CIDCO is Maharashtra's town development authority.

The greenfield airport in Navi Mumbai is being built in five phases, with the launch phase expected to accommodate 2 crore passengers annually and handle 5 lakh metric tons (MMT) of cargo.

Upon full completion, NMIA will have the capacity to serve 9 crore passengersand handle 3.2 MMT of cargo annually, Air India said.

As per the official Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM), the airport is closed for operations until the wee hours of October 1, with inauguration expected on September 30, 2025.

Aprt from AI Express, Akasa Air and IndiGo have also committed a certain number of flights starting from NMIA once operations commence.

(With inputs from PTI)