The move comes as the two airports' operator, Adani Airport Holdings Ltd, prepares to redevelop the existing airport, even as a month-long standoff with foreign airlines over relocating their operations remains unresolved
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At least 12 international airlines, including 11 Gulf and West Asian carriers, have been denied flight slots at the Mumbai airport for summer 2027, according to a communication reviewed by Mint. The development leaves them facing a temporary shift to the new Navi Mumbai airport, about 50km away.
Another 38 international carriers will continue to operate from Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, said three persons familiar with discussions.
The temporary suspension affects 11 carriers, including Qatar Airways, Riyadh Air, Oman Air and Air Arabia, whose requests for slots at the Mumbai airport for the summer 2027 schedule, starting April, were not accommodated, said the people cited above who did not wish to be identified.
The affected airlines have around 112 weekly departures from Mumbai, accounting for nearly 15% of the airport's 770 weekly international departures, based on their existing schedules.
The 11 Gulf carriers are Oman Air, Gulf Air, Air Arabia, Kuwait Airways, Qatar Airways, Jazeera Airways, Flyadeal, Flynas, Riyadh Air, Saudi Arabian Airlines and SalamAir. The name of the 12th affected airline could not immediately be confirmed.
“Mumbai airport allocated slots for 38 of 50 international airlines for Summer 2027. 12 airlines with 16 daily departures were not allocated slots,” said an official familiar with the discussions
In an email sent to the airlines on 5 November, which was reviewed by Mint, Mumbai airport authorities said the airport's capacity would be reduced by 5 million passengers per annum from the Northern Summer 2027 schedule.
“From Northern Summer 2027, CSMIA capacity will be reduced by 5 MPPA. Consequently, CSMIA is unable to accommodate requested Summer 2027 slots of your esteemed airline, necessitating a temporary transition out of BOM T2 effective beginning of Northern Summer 2027 and subsequent seasons,” the email said.
The airport operator also said the affected historic slots would be fully restored once the expansion of Terminal 2 at the Mumbai airport was completed and additional capacity became available.
The proposed shift is part of Adani Airport's plan to redistribute international operations between Mumbai and Navi Mumbai, as it prepares for the redevelopment of Terminal 1.
Adani Airport Holdings, the country's second-largest airport operator after GMR Airports, had on 30 October written to civil aviation secretary Samir Kumar Sinha seeking voluntary slot surrender from airlines by 3 November. It proposed temporarily shifting services to Navi Mumbai to free up capacity for the demolition and reconstruction of Terminal 1.
In its letter to the secretary, reviewed by Mint, the Mumbai airport operator said if the airlines did not submit their transition proposals, it planned to temporarily move all flights serving the 14 destinations identified in transition plans submitted by Indian carriers. These include Bahrain, Dammam, Dhaka, Doha, Fujairah, Jakarta, Jeddah, Kathmandu, Kuwait City, Madinah, Muscat, Ras Al Khaimah, Riyadh and Sharjah.
Mint could not independently verify whether the civil aviation ministry had approved the proposed slot reductions.
Emails sent to Adani Airport and the civil aviation ministry were not immediately answered. Mint has also reached out to six of the 12 affected airlines for their comment.
Adani Airport and airlines have been locked in a month-long standoff over relocating select international traffic to Navi Mumbai. Under its first transition plan, dated 1 October, the operator had proposed temporarily discontinuing 265 of the 770 weekly international departure slots at Mumbai's Terminal 2 from 25 October. The proposal covered 46 airlines but it was put on the backburner amid stiff resistance.
At the end of October, three Indian carriers—IndiGo, Air India Express and Akasa Air—agreed to shift part of their international operations to Navi Mumbai. The shift involved close to 140 weekly departures, or around 70% of the planned 5 million passenger capacity.
Foreign carriers, however, sought more time, until at least October next year, to decide whether to split their operations between the two airports. Adani Airport had sought transition plans from the airlines by 3 November. Mint could not independently verify if any responses had come in yet.
Abhishek Law has spent 18 years in journalism, which in news industry terms means he has survived several newsroom restructurings, countless “urgent” press releases, and more cups of tea than he can reasonably count. Based in New Delhi, he covers aviation for Mint, a sector where aircraft, oil prices, geopolitics and airline CEOs regularly conspire to make his life interesting. Most of his time gets occupied by translating airline jargon like ASKs, yields, load factors and fleet strategies into language that doesn’t require a pilot’s licence.
His motto is simple: if readers need a glossary, he hasn’t done his job properly. On most days, the quadragenarian is tracking airline strategies, policy changes and the occasional mid-air disruption that suddenly become a stock market story. When planes are behaving themselves (which is not very often nowadays), he strays into other corporate beats like steel, trying to figure out what’s really happening. He loves to talk, especially ask—that one more question which people are uncomfortable with, and saving contacts in his phone as a "Source who may or may not pick up calls”.
But, on a serious note, the goal remains simple: cut through jargon, find that additional detail, and turn complicated business stories into something one can actually enjoy reading.
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