Mumbai Airport Plan Would Move 12 Foreign Carriers to Navi Mumbai; Gulf Airlines Push Back and Warn of Reciprocal Measures
Mumbai International Airport Limited, the operator of Mumbai's airport, has told a group of foreign airlines that because of the redevelopment of Terminal 1, the airport's annual passenger-handling capacity will fall by about five million from the summer 2027 schedule, and their summer slots at Terminal 2 can no longer be accommodated. The affected carriers must move their flights to Navi Mumbai International Airport, about 50 kilometers away, or suspend the routes. The foreign airlines have jointly appealed to India's Ministry of Civil Aviation, in a dispute that has been building since October.
Twelve carriers are affected: Saudia, Qatar Airways, Kuwait Airways, Oman Air, Gulf Air, Air Arabia, Riyadh Air, Jazeera Airways, flynas, flyadeal, SalamAir and Nepal Airlines, eleven of them from the Gulf and West Asia. Together they operate 16 flights a day from Mumbai, about 112 a week, to 14 destinations including Bahrain, Dammam, Doha, Jeddah, Kuwait City, Madinah, Muscat, Riyadh, Sharjah, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah, Dhaka, Jakarta and Kathmandu, roughly 15 percent of the airport's international operations.
The Airline Operators Committee in Mumbai has written to the civil aviation secretary asking whether the government approved the decision and urging that the carriers' historic slots for the summer 2027 schedule be restored, citing India's slot guidelines and the IATA Worldwide Airport Slot Guidelines. Gulf Air has warned that, absent a satisfactory reply, it will escalate the matter to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and Bahrain's civil aviation authority, raise it with IATA, and consider reciprocal measures under the bilateral air services agreements. Saudia has said a sudden cut would threaten the annual Hajj and year-round Umrah traffic. Indian carriers IndiGo, Air India Express and Akasa Air have agreed to move some international flights to Navi Mumbai.
Mumbai International Airport Limited is a joint venture between Adani Airport Holdings and the Airports Authority of India, and it also operates the Navi Mumbai airport. The operator says the original timings will be restored once the terminal works finish. India's civil aviation ministry has not responded to media queries. The dispute began in early October, when the operator proposed suspending 265 of Terminal 2's 770 weekly international departure slots for the redevelopment; after foreign carriers objected, the plan was recast on October 30 as a route-by-route transfer.
Source: Airline Operators Committee, Mumbai
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：孟买贾特拉帕蒂·希瓦吉·马哈拉吉国际机场（资料图）。PIYUSH P PUJARI 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai (file photo). Photo by PIYUSH P PUJARI, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
