'Capacity limit costs Mumbai the hub race'

Adani Airport Holdings (AAHL) has laid down the expansion plans for its airport business, but for Jeet Adani, director airports, the larger strategic context is Mumbai's missed opportunity to become India's primary global aviation hub.

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Adani, in an interaction with Akbar Merchant, explains how capacity bottlenecks at the city's main airport reshaped traffic flows, how Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) is being positioned beyond a purely aeronautical model, and why Mumbai's long-term airport needs remain structurally unresolved. Excerpts:

You have outlined a large capex plan and a possible IPO window. How does that tie into Mumbai's aviation constraints?

The investment plan is about building capacity where it can actually come up. Mumbai airport has been capped at around 55 million passengers for nearly a decade. That is not a financial issue, it is a physical one. When a city with Mumbai's economic weight cannot expand aviation capacity, traffic shifts elsewhere. That is what happened. Long-haul growth that should have come to Mumbai went to Delhi. Our capex, including NMIA, is meant to correct that imbalance over time, but it also shows how late the response has been.

You often compare Mumbai with London. Why is that comparison important?