Amid the fanfare surrounding the opening of the Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA), an interesting detail emerged: while IndiGo’s 6E460 from Bengaluru was the maiden commercial flight to land, Gautam
Adani’s private jet was the first aircraft to touch down on the airstrip at 7.21 am.
The industrialist, whose group has co-developed the airport, flew in from Ahmedabad aboard his Boeing 737 Max 8 to welcome passengers on the inaugural day.
Warm Welcome for First Flyers
Adani greeted passengers personally as several enthusiastic travellers queued up to take selfies with him. To mark the historic occasion, cultural performances, including the Lezim folk dance accompanied by dhol and tutari, were organised at the terminal.
Special Souvenirs and First-Day Traffic
To commemorate the inaugural journeys, India Post released a special ‘First Flight Carried’ commemorative cover, flown on an IndiGo service to Goa. Passengers on the first departing flights were presented with symbolic boarding passes by airlines to honour them as maiden travellers.
A total of 4,000 passengers passed through NMIA on the first day of operations.
Flights and Expansion Plan
On day one, flights operated by IndiGo, Air India Express, Akasa Air and Star Air connected NMIA with Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Cochin, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Mangaluru, Nagpur and Goa. The airport will handle 15 arrivals and departures on Friday.
From December 29, services will increase as IndiGo begins daily flights to Chennai and Coimbatore, along with five weekly flights to Vadodara.
Roadmap Ahead for NMIA
Currently limited to domestic flights between 8 am and 8 pm, NMIA is slated to shift to round-the-clock operations by February 2026 and commence international flights from April 2026.
Designed to decongest Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, NMIA is also expected to serve as a convenient alternative for travellers from Raigad, Pune and the Konkan region. Once all five phases are completed, NMIA is projected to handle 90 million passengers annually, making it one of the world’s largest airports.
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