As Navi Mumbai International Airport begins operations, all eyes are now towards the Noida International Airport (NIA), which is yet to start operations and there is no clear date for the same yet. The year 2025 is certainly not going to witness any flight taking off from Noida’s Jewar Airport. Union aviation secretary Samir Sinha will on Thursday hold a review of the status of the airport.
This includes some key elements like a critical perimeter wall, and after all this, a possible date of formal inauguration will be announced. If everything works fine, the opening could take place anytime before March 31, 2026, reported TOI, citing sources.
NIA’s perimeter wall was not ready till very recently and watch towers have been set up at regular intervals on the perimeter that require proper illumination. They added that passenger flow areas for arrivals and departures are porous at some points, and this needs to be plugged, they added.
What else does the airport lack?
The airport, by large, is ready for flight operations except for a number of last stage clearances. One of these is the final certification of bomb disposal equipment by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). The aviation ministry has talked to NIA CEO Christoph Schnellmann, who is an expat. The officials have pointed out that the CEOs of both Air India and IndiGo are foreign nationals as well.
Schnellmann was previously involved in the construction of Bengaluru‘s Kempegowda International Airport in 2007-08. As a rule, foreign CEOs for greenfield airports need security clearance from the home ministry.
“We expect to resolve this issue, too,” the source said, quoted TOI.
What will happen in meeting?
Aviation Secretary Sinha on Thursday will meet senior officials of agencies like Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), CISF and Directorate General of Civil Aviation, apart from executives of NIA. They will discuss a number of issues including fixing the issues and finalising an inauguration date, which will be announced after clearance is received from the Prime Minister’s Office.
As for the Navi Mumbai Airport, it was inaugurated on Oct 8, 2025, and it began handling flights from Thursday (Dec 25) – a gap of 2.5 months. Mopa, Goa’s second airport, was inaugurated on Dec 11, 2022. It became operational from Jan 5, 2023.
Schnellmann had earlier said that NIA will begin with a “limited window of daytime operations” in the first few weeks and then gradually have night flights.