Mumbai Airport Offers Airlines Shift to Navi Mumbai or Service Pause as Capacity Dispute Deepens

Five million passengers at the centre of Mumbai's airport dispute

Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) is asking airlines to plan for a reduction in capacity equivalent to 5 million passengers a year from the summer 2027 schedule, offering them the choice of moving some or all flights to Navi Mumbai, suspending services at the existing airport until Terminal 1 reopens in 2030, or proposing alternatives.

The Airline Operators Committee (AOC), representing all 47 airlines operating at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, says its members have agreed to neither a transfer of international flights nor cuts to their existing departure and arrival slots. The two sides are scheduled to meet on October 28, following an exchange of letters and emails over the proposed changes.

The dispute reaches beyond where aircraft take off. MIAL wants to make room at Terminal 2 for domestic passengers displaced by Terminal 1 redevelopment. International airlines say moving flights to another airport about 50 kilometres away could split their staff, aircraft support services and connecting networks, while adding costs.

MIAL puts the existing airport's annual handling capacity at 55 million passengers. Its proposed reduction of 5 million represents about 9% of that figure. The airport also handled nearly 55 million passengers in the financial year 2026, including about 38 million domestic travellers and nearly 17 million international travellers. A change of this size would therefore affect an airport already processing traffic close to its stated capacity.

What MIAL is asking airlines to decide

MIAL says individual airlines have complete freedom to determine their network plans for summer 2027 and beyond. Its position, however, keeps the proposed capacity restriction in place while asking carriers to decide how they will adjust.

The options include transferring some or all operations to Navi Mumbai International Airport, temporarily suspending services at Mumbai until Terminal 1's redevelopment is completed in 2030, or exploring other arrangements. Both airports are controlled by Adani Airport Holdings.

MIAL says discussions between airline planning teams and its Airport Operations Control Centre are voluntary and intended to examine possible operating arrangements. In an October 16 email, it sought consultations on reallocating international traffic equivalent to 5 million passengers annually from Terminal 2.

The airport operator described the purpose of those discussions in its communication to airlines:

We want to provide a genuine, collaborative platform to discuss all possible scenarios mutually,

The AOC says participation in individual meetings amounts to consultation, while acceptance of a transfer or slot reduction requires a separate agreement. This is the central disagreement: MIAL is asking airlines how to accommodate a restriction that airlines are still asking it to justify.

Why domestic construction affects international flights

Terminal 1's planned demolition and reconstruction would displace domestic passengers. MIAL proposes accommodating about 5 million of those passengers at Terminal 2, which would require reducing the international traffic handled there.

The initial proposal involved temporarily discontinuing 265 of Mumbai's 770 weekly international departure slots, affecting 46 airlines. That is approximately 34% of those departure slots, or roughly one in three. A slot is permission to use airport capacity for an arrival or departure at a particular time.

The 34% share of international departure slots and the 9% reduction against total annual passenger capacity measure different things. One counts scheduled departures in a week; the other counts the number of passengers the airport can handle in a year. Aircraft size and the balance between domestic and international services help explain why the percentages differ.

MIAL says airlines' historic slots will be maintained and restored after Terminal 1 is redeveloped. Those slots are the established timings around which airlines have built their schedules. The AOC is seeking protection for current operations during construction as well as assurances about their eventual return.

How the proposal changed during October

The dispute began on October 1 with a proposal to remove 265 weekly international departures from Terminal 2 starting October 25. Airline opposition prompted the Ministry of Civil Aviation to ask MIAL to defer that transition, consult carriers again and return with a revised Terminal 1 redevelopment plan.

The main dates in the discussions and construction plans are:

• October 1, 2026: MIAL proposed the reduction in weekly international departure slots.
• October 13: Airport leaders and airline representatives discussed alternatives. Adani Airports leaders, including Jeet Adani, assured airlines of a collaborative process.
• October 16: MIAL sought individual consultations on reallocating international traffic for summer 2027.
• October 17: The AOC rejected any suggestion that consultation meant acceptance and requested a response by 5 pm on October 21.
• October 19: MIAL reiterated the proposed capacity restriction and the options available to airlines.
• October 28: The next stakeholder meeting is scheduled.
• January 15, 2027: The first redevelopment phase was scheduled to begin with demolition of the north section of T1B.
• Summer 2027: MIAL proposes introducing the capacity restriction.
• 2030: MIAL expects Terminal 1 to reopen after redevelopment and says historic slots will be restored.

Following airline talks, MIAL also assured carriers that international flights would not be shifted until at least the end of March. The latest proposal places the capacity restriction in the summer 2027 schedule rather than the original October 25 transition.

The redevelopment has been described as a phased project intended to allow Terminal 1 to continue handling flights during construction. Its first demolition stage would remove the north section of T1B, accounting for about one third of terminal capacity. The detailed operating arrangements for each construction phase remain unresolved.

Airlines want the capacity calculation explained

The AOC questions why international slots must be reduced when Terminal 2 is expected to gain capacity for another 5 million passengers annually by March 2027. It also cites Terminal 1's current passenger handling capacity as below 10 million annually.

The committee has referred to a total Terminal 1 capacity figure of 15 million passengers as well. Its request for terminal by terminal capacity and utilisation figures would allow airlines to examine how the different numbers relate to the space available during construction.

The expected Terminal 2 addition is numerically equal to MIAL's proposed restriction of 5 million passengers a year. Airlines want to know how that expansion, the sequence of demolition and the remaining Terminal 1 facilities have been included in the airport's calculations.

The AOC has requested a comprehensive refurbishment plan covering the scope of work, structural safety assessment, implementation phases, timelines and measures to accommodate traffic. It also wants operational data and verifiable capacity assessments before changes to existing slots are agreed.

For airlines, the practical issue is how much traffic the airport can safely process at each stage of construction. An annual passenger total alone leaves out when passengers arrive, which facilities they need and how much terminal space will be available during the busiest hours. The requested plan would give carriers the information needed to assess alternative schedules.

IATA backs consultation and a revised plan

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) supports both Terminal 1 redevelopment and the development of Navi Mumbai airport. Its concern is how the transition is planned and agreed.

Albert Tjoeng, IATA's head of corporate communications, set out the association's position:

Any significant reduction in airport capacity or other measure impacting airline operations should be based on a transparent demand-capacity assessment, meaningful consultation with affected airlines, and sufficient time to develop workable transition arrangements that minimize disruption to airlines and their passengers,

A demand and capacity assessment compares the flights and passengers seeking to use an airport with the traffic its facilities can handle. IATA wants stakeholders to establish Mumbai's actual requirements, examine the basis for any reduction and consider alternatives that could reduce disruption.

The AOC and IATA have pointed to the Ministry of Civil Aviation's May 2013 Slot Allocation Guidelines and the Worldwide Airport Slot Guidelines. Airlines are asking MIAL to confirm that it will make no unilateral changes to traffic allocation or slots while consultation and the applicable procedures are followed.

The ministry's intervention has already required another round of discussion and a revised redevelopment plan. The October 28 meeting will give the operator and airlines another opportunity to agree on the capacity assumptions and the next steps.

Why operating at two airports creates difficulties

Airlines say the roughly 50 kilometre distance between Mumbai and Navi Mumbai makes splitting operations more complicated than moving flights between terminals at the same airport. Aircraft, crews, maintenance support and ground handling would have to be organised across two locations.

Stefan Gumuseli, general manager of Air France-KLM, said splitting bases would reduce operational efficiency, divide teams and ground handling arrangements, and make the airline's long haul network harder to manage. Air France-KLM also questioned whether Navi Mumbai offered it a sufficiently separate passenger catchment area to justify another base.

A catchment area is the region from which an airport draws its passengers. An airline considering a second airport must weigh access to travellers against the cost of staffing and supporting another operation, especially when it runs only a limited number of flights to the city.

Passengers could also face changes to their journey planning. A flight moved to Navi Mumbai would use a different departure point, and an itinerary involving both airports would require travel between them. Airlines are seeking transition arrangements that protect connections as well as individual services.

Emirates points to missing support facilities

Emirates has raised specific concerns about Navi Mumbai's readiness for international operations. Essa Sulaiman Ahmad, its senior vice-president for commercial operations covering West Asia and the Indian Ocean, identified catering and cargo warehousing among the facilities it needed.

Asked whether Emirates would move about a third of its Mumbai flights if the proposal returned, Ahmad gave this assessment:

The airport is not ready.

Ahmad explained the supporting services behind that view:

At an airport, you will require a facility for catering. You will require a facility, for example, for cargo warehousing. You will require those elements. Until it gets fully built into an ecosystem, I think it's going to be difficult for any of the airlines to shift there,

Emirates operates 35 weekly flights from Mumbai to Dubai, its largest frequency from any Indian city, according to aviation data firm Cirium. Those services account for about 21% of its 167 weekly flights from nine Indian destinations to Dubai. Its total weekly frequency was unchanged from October 2025.

The Mumbai schedule therefore forms a substantial part of Emirates' Indian operation. Relocating a share of those flights would require the airline to arrange the staff and services needed at a second airport while continuing to operate at the first.

Additional flights face another limit

Ahmad said Emirates was open to considering airports including Navi Mumbai and Noida if it received additional flight and seat entitlements under the air services agreement between India and the United Arab Emirates. He said the airline was already using its permitted capacity.

Air services agreements set the rights under which designated airlines fly between countries, including limits on seats and services. Ahmad put the Dubai related entitlement at around 67,000 seats a week in each direction. Increasing that allowance would require an agreement between the governments.

Ahmad also said Navi Mumbai could provide access to a market closer to Pune. His comments identify two separate considerations for the airline: whether to move existing services and whether it could obtain permission to add services at a new airport.

The immediate decision in Mumbai remains the construction transition. MIAL wants airlines to prepare for reduced capacity from summer 2027; airlines want the redevelopment calculations, operating plan and slot protections settled first. The October 28 meeting is the next scheduled point for those discussions.

Key Points

• MIAL proposes restricting Mumbai airport capacity by the equivalent of 5 million passengers annually from summer 2027.
• Airlines may move services to Navi Mumbai, suspend them at Mumbai until Terminal 1 reopens in 2030, or propose alternatives.
• The AOC, representing 47 airlines, says its members have not agreed to transfers or reductions in existing slots.
• The original proposal affected 265 of 770 weekly international departure slots, approximately 34%.
• Airlines want detailed construction plans and an explanation of how Terminal 2's expected capacity addition has been counted.
• IATA supports redevelopment but calls for a transparent capacity assessment, consultation and sufficient transition time.
• Emirates has raised concerns about catering, cargo warehousing and the permissions needed for additional services.
• MIAL and airline representatives are scheduled to meet on October 28.