Adani wants to move international flights to Navi Mumbai airport: Why are Air France, Emirates, others resisting?

Adani Group is proposing to shift international flights from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) to Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) to accommodate the redevelopment of Terminal 1-B at CSMIA. However, many foreign airlines, including Air France and Emirates, are opposing the proposal and have approached the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) to express their concerns.

The AOC-Mumbai has criticized Adani's plan, arguing that it is a "unilateral decision" without sufficient justification and questioning the assessment of NMIA's operational capacity. Adani's proposal is driven by structural concerns at T1-B, as identified by an IIT Bombay audit, which highlighted corrosion, spalling concrete, and cracks in several parts of the terminal.

The redevelopment is expected to continue until 2029-30, and Adani argues that the transition would only impact around nine percent of CSMIA's total capacity of 55 million passenger passages per annum (mppa). Despite the opposition, Adani maintains that the redevelopment cannot be delayed indefinitely and emphasizes that the proposed transition would affect only a small portion of CSMIA's capacity.