Just like London, Mumbai needs five airports: Jeet Adani

Jeet Adani, Director-Airports, Adani Airports Holdings

Mumbai’s inability to expand passenger capacity over the past decade has cost it the chance to emerge as India’s primary global aviation hub, according to Jeet Adani, Director – Airports, Adani Airports Holdings Ltd (AAHL).

In an interaction with Moneycontrol, Adani said Mumbai should be benchmarked against global aviation hubs such as London, which operates five airports to cater to international and domestic traffic.

“Mumbai should be compared with London, which has five airports. Mumbai has two, and there is talk of a third one. We need five airports in Mumbai itself. Mumbai airport has been stuck at 55 million passenger capacity for the last 10 years. If it wasn’t like that, Mumbai would have been a major global hub,” Adani said.

Capacity Constraints and Lost Hub Opportunity

Mumbai’s existing airport has two runways, but they only be operated  one at a time because they intersect. This structural limitation has severely restricted capacity expansion, even as international traffic to and from India has grown rapidly.

“Why can’t Mumbai have direct connectivity to 20 cities in the US, or to every major European city, Africa, or East Asia? Delhi got it because Mumbai was unable to do it,” Adani said, underscoring how capacity constraints shifted India’s long-haul traffic growth to the national capital.

Navi Mumbai Airport to Ease, Not Eliminate, Pressure

AAHL is preparing to inaugurate the Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) on December 25, 2025. Phase 1 of the airport will have a capacity of 20 million passengers annually, increasing the combined capacity of the Mumbai region to around 75 million passengers over the next 18–20 months.

However, Adani cautioned that demand would continue to outstrip supply even after NMIA becomes operational.

“Despite Navi Mumbai coming online, demand in the Mumbai region will still be higher than available capacity,” he said.

Third Runway at NMIA: A Complex Proposition

On December 15, City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra (CIDCO), the co-owner of NMIA, initiated the process to appoint a consultant to conduct a techno-commercial feasibility study for a third parallel runway at Navi Mumbai airport.

Adani said that under the current master plan, there is no available space within the acquired land to accommodate a third runway. If approved, the proposal would require a complete overhaul of the existing airport design.

“The planning for a third runway would mean discarding the entire current plan of NMIA and starting afresh. If the third runway is not truly independent, it won’t add meaningful capacity,” he said.

According to Adani, an independent third runway would require its own terminal, separate highway access, metro connectivity, and independent airfield operations. Without this, the additional runway would add only marginal capacity of 2–3 million passengers annually.

He also noted that NMIA’s two parallel runways are among the most tightly spaced in the world.

“They are just 1.5 km apart. The third runway also needs a similar separation. If it’s placed too close, both runways cannot be used simultaneously. And if it crosses the airfield, capacity cannot be increased,” Adani explained.

Third Airport vs Third Runway

The Maharashtra government has proposed developing a third airport for the Mumbai region near the upcoming Vadhvan seaport in Palghar district. However, the Ministry of Civil Aviation said earlier this week that it has not yet received any formal proposal for a greenfield airport at that location.

Adani said that while a new airport could cost between Rs 10,000 crore and Rs 20,000 crore, a third runway might appear more economical, at least on paper.

“If in Rs 2,000–3,000 crore there is a possibility to buy land and build a third runway, theoretically it looks better. But a third runway is not just concrete — it needs full connectivity and infrastructure because it can serve nearly 90 million passengers,” he said.

For now, both the third runway and a third airport remain conceptual. But Adani’s central argument is clear: without multiple airports and sustained capacity creation, Mumbai risks falling further behind global aviation hubs despite being India’s financial capital.