Adani Group likely to shift one of the big airline operations to Navi Mumbai airport?

Billionaire Gautam Adani-controlled Adani Group is actively considering to shift of the big airlines to Navi Mumbai airport in an earnest bid to decongest Mumbai airport and boost revenue from its eight airports. Adani Airport Holdings (AAHL), a group company of the ports-to-power conglomerate, manages airports in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Mangaluru, Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruvananthapuram. Also, it is developing Navi Mumbai airport which is likely to be operational by 2024. Citing people familiar with the development, Business Standard reported that Adani Group officials gave two presentations on the airport plans to the potential investors last week.

Mumbai airport is the second busiest airport in the country and there is further no scope for capacity expansion beyond 6 crore passengers per year as it is in the heart of the city, the financial daily, mentioned, citing one of the presentations. This means that there is effectively no new slot available for airlines at Mumbai airport. The Adani Group presentation mentioned that the Mumbai airport had two major airlines with domestic and international airlines—IndiGo and Air India. One of these airlines may be shifted to Navi Mumbai International Airport so that the load on Mumbai International Airport (MIAL) can be reduced. The airline will get the benefit of prime slots at Navi Mumbai airport. Also, the cost of moving the entire base from Mumbai to Navi Mumbai is also not high because shifting just spillover will result in an additional initial setup cost to the airline. In the second presentation, it group mentioned that it is planning to increase passenger capacity from 3.1 crore to 7.5 crore at the seven operational airports by 2027. Further, in the first phase, the Navi Mumbai airport will be operational by December 2024 and will have a capacity of 2 crore passengers. It also plans to develop Mumbai airport as a transit hub on the lines of Dubai airport.