Navi Mumbai International Airport’s commercial operations to begin by March 2025

The government had earlier expected to start operations by the end of this year.

Commercial operations of the Navi Mumbai International Airport is expected to start by March 2025, minister of civil aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia told reporters during a press conference held on January 13.

"The project, worth almost Rs 18,000 crore, will be completed in five phases. So far, 55-60% of the project work has been completed, Scindia added. The inaugural phase will have the capacity to serve 2 crore passengers and 0.8 million tonne of cargo annually, with both domestic and international operations.

The revised timeline comes a day after Scindia said the airport will become operational from November or December this year. "Internally, we are targeting to start operations by end of this year but there are a lot of elements here.. we are looking at gatishakti model, automated passenger movement in the terminal.. all the puzzles should come together," he said when asked about the delay in the schedule.

The minister, who came down to survey the progress of the airport, said he held a review meeting with concerned officials and took stock of the situation. He flagged that works are ongoing for DGCA ( Directorate General of Civil Aviation) permissions and runway calibration. "This will be the first airport with rail, road and metro connectivity," he said adding that the officials are planning waterway connectivity for the final phase.

Asked about employment generation with the new airport, he said, around 400-450 personnel will be hired for Air Traffic Control (ATC) operations. By the final phase the project is expected to add over 1 lakh jobs.

The airport, being developed by Adani Group, will be offering sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for aircraft operations.