Navi Mumbai International Airport - the big - ticket investment all set to catalyse India’s trade

On October 11, India witnessed the trial run of the IAF aircraft Airbus C295 and a Sukhoi fighter jet at the brand new Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) as a key part of the runway testing ahead of the airport’s official launch. This ushers in a new phase of India’s growth chapter. However, the airport is slated to be operational from March 31, 2025.?

The eighth Indian airport built by the Adani Group, the Navi Mumbai International Airport, comes as a sigh of relief and a wondrous dream materialised for airlines and related logistics stakeholders who were earnestly waiting for an equally resourcefully integrated alternative and an opportunity to capitalise on India’s air cargo boom, propelled by manufacturing expansion and the ever-increasing e-commerce demand.

Compared to its neighbouring giant, the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, NMIA will have congestion-free inland access systems. Moreover, its proximity to the gargantuan catalyst to export/import containerised trade, the Nhava Sheva seaport, and the region’s logistics service clusters make it a huge synergistic effort.

Areawise, some 36,000 sq metres of air cargo terminal space will cater to domestic and some 25,500 sq metres, to international cargo. Current estimates are that it will have the capacity to handle 800,000 tonnes of cargo in the first phase of operations. Moreover, NMIA has the potential to process 2.5m tonnes of cargo by 2032.

Perturbed by the delays caused by the congested Mumbai Air Cargo complex, freight forwarders are hopeful that the new airport will ease a lot of the burden and be beneficial for facilitating quick cargo movement, which comes as a welcome development, especially for perishables.?

Combined with the Noida International Airport, also known as the Jewar Airport, NMIA will prove to be a big-ticket investment and a welcoming beginning of the aspirational campaign of the Indian government to double the domestic airport network to 300 by 2047.?