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Air India on Tuesday asked the Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) to clarify how it plans to shift flights to Terminal 2 and also to the upcoming Navi Mumbai airport from Terminal 1, which will be razed and redeveloped to increase capacity beginning October this year.
The question from an Air India executive came during an Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) meeting on Mumbai airport’s new tariff rates, Business Standard has learnt.
In response, Adani Group-led MIAL said that there was no clear answer at the moment and that such discussions would need to happen individually with each airline.
Global airlines body International Air Transport Association (IATA) asserted during the meeting that airlines should not be forced to move operations from Mumbai airport to Navi Mumbai airport solely due to Terminal 1’s demolition. SpiceJet, Air India and IndiGo are members of IATA.
The AERA on Tuesday afternoon conducted a three-hour long meeting with aviation sector stakeholders to discuss the aeronautical charges (landing charges, user development fees, parking charges, etc.) that MIAL can collect till 2028-29.
During the meeting, an Air India executive asked, “We will send a list of questions later for more clarifications and details. I have just one question at this forum … how does MIAL plan to mitigate the impact of closing down Terminal 1, even as it makes enhancements to Terminal 2.”
To this, MIAL executive, who was present at the meeting, said that the reconstruction of the entire Terminal 1 is “necessary for ensuring the safety and security for smooth conduct of airport operation”. He said that the operator will hold discussions with each airline separately for smooth shifting of flights.
T1 and T2 of the Mumbai airport currently have an annual passenger handling capacity of 15 and 40 million passengers. MIAL said that T1 would be demolished in October this year and its reconstruction is expected to be done by September 2028.
During the reconstruction phase, about 5 million passengers of T1 would be shifted to T2, while the remaining 10 million passengers would be shifted to the Navi Mumbai airport.
It is not clear how this shift will impact each airline’s flight network.
The Navi Mumbai airport is being built by MIAL’s subsidiary Navi Mumbai International Airport Private Limited (NMIAL). It is scheduled to start commercial flight operations from June.
During Tuesday’s meeting, an IATA official said, “On the T1 demolition, we hope and expect minimal impact on airlines operating at Mumbai airport and that they are not forcibly shifted out. We recommend that the airport operator should not use its position as the operator of the two-airport system in Mumbai to forcefully move traffic or to kick-start operations at Navi Mumbai airport.”
In 2023-24, the Mumbai airport handled a total 52.8 million passengers and it is expected to handle a similar number in 2024-25, according to MIAL.
MIAL, which operates the airport in the country’s financial capital, has proposed introducing a User Development Fee (UDF) of ₹325 on every departing domestic passenger and increasing the UDF for international passengers to ₹650, more than three times the current rate.
To balance the impact of the increased UDF, MIAL said it has also proposed a reduction of approximately 35 per cent in aircraft landing and parking charges. The tariff proposal, submitted to the AERA, aims to fund infrastructure and technological enhancements at the airport.
