Mumbai airport will retain all international flight slots during the winter schedule, ending the immediate threat of cancellations or transfers to Navi Mumbai airport, but airlines may face traffic changes when Terminal 1 redevelopment begins affecting operations in the summer schedule.
The winter schedule runs from October 25 to the end of March. Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL), the operator of the airport, said airlines had agreed to support the redevelopment of the ageing Terminal 1, with traffic balancing to begin during the summer schedule. The summer schedule runs from around March 27 to October 31 next year.
MIAL said a meeting of the airport’s airline operators’ committee with Adani Airport Holdings Ltd (AAHL), which operates Mumbai and Navi Mumbai airports, resulted in an assurance that winter slots would not be disturbed. AAHL director Jeet Adani and chief executive Arun Bansal also assured airlines of minimal disruption and respect for historical slot allocations, according to a MIAL spokesperson.
“They have further given a commitment not to disturb any slots for the winter schedule,” the spokesperson said.
The immediate decision defuses a dispute that began after MIAL wrote to airlines on October 1 proposing a temporary reduction of 265 out of 770 weekly international departure slots from October 25. The proposal would have affected 46 Indian and foreign carriers and removed approximately 38 international departures a day. MIAL had said the released slots and associated ground infrastructure were needed to accommodate domestic flights displaced by the redevelopment of Terminal 1.
Terminal 1 handles only domestic traffic and carries about 15 million domestic passengers a year. Its phased redevelopment was scheduled to begin on January 15, with one-third of the terminal building set to be demolished. The first phase was expected to displace around five million domestic passengers annually, requiring additional capacity at Terminal 2 and potentially at Navi Mumbai airport.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation intervened after airlines objected to the proposed reductions. Following a stakeholder meeting on October 3, the ministry deferred MIAL’s October 26 deadline and asked the airport operator and airlines to resume negotiations.
MIAL said a joint working group would take two weeks to prepare an implementation plan for Terminal 1’s redevelopment. The operator has also offered support to airlines that choose to shift some operations to Navi Mumbai airport during the summer schedule. However, the airport operator has not announced revised timelines for the phase-wise demolition of Terminal 1.
The next stage of discussions will focus on individual airline networks and slot requirements. MIAL, AAHL and the airlines are scheduled to meet again on October 28, while the parties continue discussions on how Mumbai’s airport capacity will be managed during the redevelopment.
