Mumbai Airport to Maintain 91% of International Traffic During Terminal 1 Redevelopment

Nearly 91 per cent of international passenger traffic at Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) will remain unaffected during the upcoming redevelopment of Terminal 1. Under the Summer 2027 schedule, 39 of the 50 international airlines will continue their operations at the airport without interruption.

However, the remaining 11 carriers, which operate about 16 daily departures to select destinations, may shift their affected services to the upcoming Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) starting from the end of March 2027. Major international airlines including Emirates, Etihad Airways, Singapore Airlines, SriLankan Airlines, Thai Airways, British Airways, Lufthansa, Air France, and Turkish Airlines are scheduled to continue operating from CSMIA's Terminal 2.

The redevelopment of Terminal 1, originally commissioned in 1964, is being undertaken primarily to address structural and safety concerns. These issues were highlighted in audits conducted by Structwel in 2017 and the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in 2024, emphasizing the necessity of replacing the six-decade-old facility with modern infrastructure.

The temporary redistribution of flights is projected to impact approximately five million passengers annually, which accounts for about 9 per cent of CSMIA's total annual traffic of 55 million. The remaining 50 million passengers will continue to be handled at CSMIA during the transition period. Domestic carriers such as IndiGo, Air India, and Akasa Air have also outlined plans to shift flights serving certain destinations to NMIA.

This transition aims to create the operational headroom required to execute the redevelopment while minimizing disruptions to overall airport operations and passengers. CSMIA has assured airlines that their historical slot allocations will remain protected throughout the temporary transition.

Once completed, the new Terminal 1 is expected to increase its passenger-handling capacity from 15 million passengers per annum (MPPA) to 20 MPPA, marking a 33 per cent rise. The redeveloped facility will feature upgraded infrastructure for passenger processing and security screening, with a target operational date of March 2029.

The timing of the redevelopment coincides with Mumbai's aviation infrastructure preparing for the integration of NMIA, which will absorb part of the traffic currently managed by the capacity-constrained CSMIA. This strategic shift allows CSMIA to carry out major infrastructure work while providing NMIA an opportunity to absorb additional airline operations as part of the broader metropolitan aviation network.

"Managing infrastructure upgrades in a high-density, capacity-constrained environment like Mumbai's aviation sector requires careful operational planning. By utilizing the upcoming Navi Mumbai International Airport to absorb a portion of the traffic and protecting historical slot allocations, stakeholders can minimize passenger disruption while securing long-term capacity expansion. For businesses and logistics networks relying on uninterrupted regional connectivity, proactive capacity management during large-scale redevelopment projects is critical to sustaining operational continuity." — Dr. Shishir Gupta, Founder & CEO, StartupLanes