Navi Mumbai airport plans to start international operations by June after getting night flight permit, CEO Bansal says
HYDERABAD: Gautam Adani’s Navi Mumbai International Airport expects to start international operations by June after getting permission for night flight operations next month, the company’s top executive said.
“We are in the process of getting night flight permission, the next step will be to start 24-hour domestic operations and we will start international operations in the first quarter of FY27,” said Arun Bansal, CEO of Adani Airport Holdings Ltd. Mint at the Wings India 2026 event in Hyderabad on Wednesday.
Bansal also reiterated the need to ease bilateral agreements to allow foreign airlines to operate more flights to India; at least until Indian airlines have sufficient capacity.
Bansal told reporters in October that international airlines were expected to join once the airport received permission for night operations. Bansal said at the time that foreign carriers would get a one-year waiver on parking charges, which domestic carriers would not be able to get.
Navi Mumbai airport became operational a little over a month ago with its first flight on December 25. The airport is open daily from 8am to 8pm and can handle up to 10 flights per hour. India’s three largest airlines – IndiGo, Air India and Akasa Air – and regional carrier Star Air have started domestic operations from Navi Mumbai airport.
Since December 25, 2025, there have been 23 flights per day from the airport. In its press release in November, the operator said that this number is expected to increase to 34 daily flights starting from February.
teething problems
According to the latest update, the airport surpassed 100,000 passengers in the first 19 days of commercial operations. Navi Mumbai airport is facing teething problems in network connectivity. It was reported that there was a lack of mobile network signals and irregular coverage at the newly opened airport.
NMIAL is the eighth airport owned by Adani Airports Holding, a wholly owned subsidiary of Adani Enterprises, the flagship of the Ahmedabad-based conglomerate.
Adani Airports operates and manages airports in India primarily through public-private partnerships. These include Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Mangaluru, Jaipur, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram, Mumbai and Navi Mumbai airports.
The airport business contributed 10% to total consolidated revenue. Adani Enterprises and 21% of total EBITDA. Revenue from airport business increased by 27% ₹8,062 crore in FY25.
Adani Airports is India’s second largest airport operator in terms of revenue, after GMR, which operates Delhi, Hyderabad and Goa airports. GMR is modernizing Nagpur airport and developing Bhogapuram (Visakhapatnam). It also manages Bidar airport in Karnataka.
