Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA), India’s newest Greenfield airport, will begin commercial operations on December 25 with 23 scheduled daily departures, officials announced on Tuesday. For the first month, the airport will operate for 12 hours daily between 8 am and 8 pm and will be capable of handling up to 10 aircraft movements per hour. This phased rollout is aimed at ensuring smooth and safe operations from the first day.
The inaugural flight to land at NMIA will be IndiGo 6E460 from Bengaluru, scheduled to arrive at 8:00 am. The first outbound flight will be IndiGo 6E882 to Hyderabad at 8:40 am. During this initial period, IndiGo, Air India Express, and Akasa Air will operate flights connecting Mumbai to 16 major domestic destinations, helping reduce the load on the existing Mumbai airport.
Starting February 2026, NMIA will move to round-the-clock operations, increasing capacity to 34 daily departures to meet the rising aviation demand in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. To prepare for the launch, the airport is conducting extensive Operational Readiness and Airport Transfer (ORAT) trials involving airline partners, security agencies, and other stakeholders.
The CISF was formally inducted at NMIA on October 29, 2025, and is deployed across key security points at the airport. The inauguration of the airport by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 8 set the foundation for a phased, safety-first rollout.
Navi Mumbai International Airport Limited (NMIAL), the entity responsible for developing and operating the airport, is a public-private partnership between Mumbai International Airport Limited, a subsidiary of Adani Airports Holdings Limited holding a 74 percent stake, and CIDCO, which holds the remaining 26 percent. The launch of NMIA is expected to significantly ease congestion at the existing Mumbai airport and expand aviation capacity for the region.
