After decades of delays, Navi Mumbai airport finally takes off on Christmas; 30 flights operate

NMIA handled 30 domestic flights—15 arrivals and 15 departures—between 8 am and 8 pm, with IndiGo, Air India Express, Akasa Air and Star Air operating services

NAVI MUMBAI: At 8 am on Christmas Day, an IndiGo flight from Bengaluru touched down at the newly opened Navi Mumbai International Airport to a water cannon salute, formally launching passenger operations after nearly 30 years of bureaucratic delays, environmental challenges and protests by project-affected persons.

At 8 am on Christmas Day, an IndiGo flight from Bengaluru touched down at the newly opened Navi Mumbai International Airport to a water cannon salute. (PTI)

Applause broke out inside the aircraft as it rolled to a halt, while residents gathered along nearby highways and access roads to watch and record a milestone that had been decades in the making. Built as a greenfield project through a public–private partnership between the Adani Group and the City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra (Cidco), the airport is designed to handle up to 90 million passengers annually by 2032, promising to transform connectivity for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.

Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani was present inside the terminal to welcome the first batch of arriving passengers, greeting them individually and posing for photographs. Passengers were issued commemorative photo certificates and presented with gifts, adding to the celebratory atmosphere.

Cidco vice-chairman and managing director Vijay Singhal told HT that the airport is being built as the anchor of a region-wide mobility and economic system rather than as a standalone facility. “This is not a standalone airport that has been added to Mumbai’s map,” he said. “NMIA has been planned as a system—integrated with road, rail, metro, high-speed rail and logistics networks—so that it scales efficiently as demand grows.”

Together with Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai, the two facilities are expected to handle 150 million passengers annually by 2037. “Mumbai cannot remain a single-airport city,” Singhal said. “NMIA ensures growth is planned, not improvised.”

Former Thane MP and BJP leader Sanjeev Naik, who took the inaugural IndiGo flight to Hyderabad with his wife Kalpana, said December 25, 2025, would be written “in golden letters” in the history of Navi Mumbai and Maharashtra. “To be a passenger on this inaugural flight is a matter of pride,” he said.

Also on board the first departure was former Panvel corporator Pushpalata Madhvi. “Our village used to be right where this airport is now, and it brings us joy to see it built on our land,” she said, describing the facilities as excellent. She, like Naik, reiterated the long-standing demand that the airport be named after the late farmer leader DB Patil, who led protests against land acquisition by Cidco for the development of Navi Mumbai in the 1970s and ’80s.

Harishchandra Madhvi, a PAP travelling on the same flight, said flying on the opening day was a deliberate decision. “When it was announced, we decided we would take the first flight,” he said, adding that the airport had transformed the fortunes of displaced villages and traditional village artisans.

Even as celebrations unfolded inside the terminal, several PAPs gathered outside the airport, many dressed in traditional Agri–Koli attire, to press their demand for renaming the airport after DB Patil. Santosh Gharat, sarpanch of Jasai village, the native village of the late farmer leader, said the protest was rooted in decades of broken assurances to local communities.

“For 40 years, our emotions have been played with. We gave our land and our livelihoods,” Gharat said. “We booked tickets only to register our protest. Until DB Patil’s name is attached to this airport, every son of the soil will continue to express his regret.”

Police were deployed around the terminal as flight operations continued uninterrupted. As part of the launch-day programme, NMIA felicitated several villagers whose land had been acquired. Some PAPs were taken on a 40-minute joyride aboard an Air India Express aircraft and presented with gifts, which participants said acknowledged their sacrifices.

Among those arriving on the inaugural Bengaluru flight was Anup Atul Patil, DB Patil’s grandson, wearing a t-shirt bearing his grandfather’s photograph and the words “D.B. Patil Navi Mumbai International Airport”. His family received him with a banner carrying the same demand.

“I came from Bengaluru mainly to land at this airport first,” Patil said. “It was a very good experience, with the water salute.” Regarding the naming issue, he expressed hope that it would be resolved soon, adding that the airport would bring development and jobs—the cause for which his grandfather had worked.