The under construction Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) will hit peak capacity in the very first quarter of its operations early next year, as per traffic guidance given by Adani Enterprises, the flagship company of the Adani Group.

“For Navi Mumbai we are putting up the first phase where the initial capacity will be 20 million passengers. We are 100% sure that with the way Mumbai travels and the catchment area travel is, (NMIA) should hit peak capacity in the first quarter itself of operations,” Saurabh Shah, deputy chief financial officer, Adani Enterprises.

In a post results conference call, Shah further added that he does not expect any dent in traffic operations at the existing Mumbai International Airport (MIAL), which is also run by the Adani group. The `19,600 crore NMIA is scheduled to open in the March quarter 2025, a delay of three months from its previously announced opening date.

“The runway is ready and we are working on the terminal development, then there are lots of other processes in terms of approval that are required to be taken in terms of risk management and disaster management. We will have the airport operational by March,” Shah added.

In the middle of July, Airports Authority of India (AAI) successfully tested the instrument landing system (ILS) at NMIA. ILS functions as a precision runway approach aid utilising dual radio beams to provide pilots with both vertical and horizontal guidance during landing approaches. 

Following the completion of all phases, NMIA would be able to handle 90 million passengers and 2.6 million tonne of cargo per annum by 2031-32. MIAL has a capacity to handle 55 million passengers. Delhi airport, the country’s busiest, is set to handle 70 million passengers this year.  

At full capacity NMIA will have four passenger terminals and two parallel runways. The airport will be connected to the National Highway 4B, the Sion-Panvel highway and the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link. It will also be connected by a rail link, a metro station and a waterway terminal in the future.  

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The new green field airport will also get the country’s first automated people mover system which will ferry passengers across the terminals.

NMIA will be the eighth airport of Adani Airport Holdings (AAHL), an umbrella entity of Adani Enterprises. Its existing airports control 23% of the Indian air traffic, serving about 20% passenger base. AAHL aims to double consumers including non-passengers to 400 million by 2028 from 200 million in 2024.