Mumbai's two-airport shift: IndiGo and Air India Express move flights to Navi Mumbai from December

What was announced on 25 and 26 October

IndiGo and the Air India Group announced a phased move of selected flights from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) to the newly built Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA). The two airlines will keep operating from Mumbai, but some services will move to Navi Mumbai over the coming months, rather than all at once.

Air India Express is to begin the transition in December 2026 with four daily domestic flights from Navi Mumbai. It also plans services to Kuwait, subject to regulatory approvals, and existing services to Oman from January 2027, followed by a gradual move of its flights to Jeddah, Riyadh, Dammam, Doha, Muscat and Sharjah, with completion expected by the IATA Northern Summer 2027 season.

IndiGo's international move is scheduled later. From February 2027 it will progressively transfer 12 daily international departures from CSMIA to NMIA, covering its present services to Bahrain, Riyadh, Dammam, Jeddah, Madinah, Kuwait, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah, Muscat, Dhaka and Jakarta, and it will add a new daily service to Kathmandu, taking its Navi Mumbai international network to 12 destinations between February and July 2027.

Why Terminal 1 redevelopment is driving the move

The shift is linked to the planned redevelopment of Terminal 1 at CSMIA. Reporting on the announcement said the move followed nearly 18 months of consultations between the airlines and Adani Airport Holdings Ltd, which operates both Mumbai airports, and was intended to ease capacity constraints at CSMIA while accommodating rising air traffic.

According to the airport operator, the planned transfer of around 30 lakh passengers, described as about 60 percent of the traffic targeted for relocation in the first phase, would create headroom for the phased redevelopment of Terminal 1. The initial phase as a whole aims to shift about 50 lakh passengers to Navi Mumbai, enabling safety enhancements, modernisation and expanded handling capacity at CSMIA.

The airlines have also said they will retain their historical operating slots at CSMIA. That matters because a slot is effectively a right to operate at a particular time, so keeping those slots means the move is a redistribution of flights across two airports, not an exit from the older airport.

What passengers should check before travelling

The most important point for travellers is that this is a phased, route-by-route move, not a single switch-over date for all Mumbai flights. A flight booked from Mumbai in December may still depart from CSMIA, while another route may already have moved to NMIA, so the airport shown on the booking is the detail that matters.

Final dates for individual flight transfers have not all been announced. IndiGo and the airport operator said final transition dates would follow project coordination and the necessary operating approvals, and Air India Express's Kuwait service remains subject to regulatory approvals. Passengers should therefore check their airline's notice for their specific route and date, rather than assuming a general December or February date applies to their flight.

IndiGo will also move the domestic connectivity flights needed to support its international services at Navi Mumbai, so that passengers can connect between domestic and international flights at the new airport. For travellers, the practical check is the same in both directions: confirm the airport, the terminal and the departure time on the airline's confirmation, especially for connecting journeys booked before the transfer dates were announced.

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