Adani's Navi Mumbai Plan Meets Foreign-Airline Resistance

By Grace Kim

Adani Airport Holdings expects one or two international airlines to suspend Mumbai service for a couple of years rather than shift operations to Navi Mumbai International Airport, CEO Arun Bansal said.

He made the claim during Adani Enterprises’ second-quarter earnings call last week: “There might be one or two airlines that decide not to operate from Mumbai for a couple of years, but that will have almost no impact on the overall passenger count.”

That confidence comes as Adani redistributes flying between two airports it operates 45 kilometers apart: Navi Mumbai International and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International (CSMIA). The proposal pushes domestic flights into CSMIA’s Terminal 2 and international carriers toward Navi Mumbai, changing where airlines place aircraft, connections and ticket revenue.

What changes in April 2027?

Adani’s plan follows the April 2027 redevelopment of Terminal 1 at CSMIA. The work will push domestic flights into Terminal 2 and squeeze out some international carriers, which the operator wants to move 45 kilometers to Navi Mumbai.

Construction of Navi Mumbai’s Terminal 2 is due to begin this month. For airlines and travel sellers, the sequence determines where seats and connecting itineraries are based before a major terminal transition.

Bansal said Navi Mumbai is close to wrapping up discussions with most international airlines, with only a few dialogues unresolved. Foreign carriers have requested more time, and Air France-KLM said in September that splitting its Mumbai operations “is not an option.”

For sellers, that resistance suggests route breadth and operational simplicity may matter more than preserving a headline passenger total. Until the remaining talks close, Adani’s two-airport distribution plan remains unsettled.

Who is committing first?

• Akasa Air will move its Mumbai–Jeddah flights to Navi Mumbai in December.
• IndiGo will phase in 12 international destinations between February and July 2027.
• Air India Group has announced seven international routes.

These commitments give Indian carriers the first-mover advantage at Navi Mumbai. If well-known foreign long-haul carriers stay away, the airport’s international network will remain mostly Indian airlines, limiting its appeal to global travelers.

CEO Willie Walsh said Navi Mumbai matters to IndiGo’s long-haul ambitions and that the airline will operate at both airports. He said its timing will follow IndiGo’s network plans rather than Adani’s requirements, preserving the airline’s control over deployment.

Indian airlines are securing the first routes, while foreign-carrier diversity remains unresolved.

Can Adani fill Navi Mumbai?

Navi Mumbai is designed for 20 million passengers a year: 15 million domestic and 5 million international. International traffic therefore accounts for one quarter of the initial annual design capacity.

Adani targets full use of that capacity by the end of the next financial year and 5 million passengers per quarter by the first quarter of 2028. Those are operator forecasts, not disclosed bookings or a capacity reconciliation.

Bansal’s “almost no impact” claim does not address route mix or revenue. If Indian carriers replace departing foreign airlines, passenger volume can hold while the airline mix changes; if gaps persist, Navi Mumbai can leave some international capacity unused.

The available remarks did not provide airline-by-airline traffic, load factors, fares or revenue forecasts. That omission matters because aggregate passenger numbers can hide a reduction in foreign-operated long-haul service, even as Indian-operated international flying grows.

Preserving passenger totals is easier than proving that Navi Mumbai has the route breadth global travelers value.

What has to work next?

The immediate test is whether Adani can turn airport construction and airline discussions into published schedules before Terminal 1’s April 2027 redevelopment. The operator also needs the announced routes to generate enough traffic to reach 5 million passengers per quarter by the first quarter of 2028.

For airlines and sellers, a split can expand domestic distribution while weakening international connectivity if foreign carriers refuse to duplicate their Mumbai operations. A smaller number of exits may barely dent totals, as Bansal argues, but it can still narrow carrier choice and route breadth.

The next proof points are whether the remaining foreign-carrier talks close, whether Akasa Air, IndiGo and Air India Group deliver their announced routes, and whether Navi Mumbai reaches the operator’s quarterly target.