Boarding soon: MMR's next aviation hub

All set to begin operations after the monsoon, the Navi Mumbai airport will decongest Mumbai's Sahar int'l airport; parallel runways will support simultaneous take-offs, landings

- G Mohiuddin Jeddy and Ateeq Shaikh

Come September-end and flyers will be issued tickets codenamed 'NMI', for the much-awaited airport in Navi Mumbai, the second aviation hub in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).

Spread across 1,160 hectares, the scale of the airport is best illustrated by the following detail - its two parallel runways are spaced 1.55km apart. The MMR will also become the first metropolitan region in India to have two international airports.

With domestic flights expected to start after the monsoon and international services scheduled for mid-2026, airlines are busy finalising schedules and arrangements are being rolled out for multi-modal connectivity. However, plans to shut and start redeveloping Terminal 1 at the Mumbai airport by end-2025 have been put on hold.

Located in Ulwe, the Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) will be easily accessible from Mumbai, North MMR, and Panvel and surrounding areas. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis recently announced that the first passenger flight from NMIA would take off by September 30.

Before operations commence, here’s a look at one of the MMR’s most transformative infrastructure projects.

Plans to build an airport to decongest the Mumbai airport go back almost 30 years.