Navi Mumbai International Airport handled 11,853 metric tonnes of cargo between January and September 2026, marking a significant freight milestone in its first nine months of commercial operations, according to an official statement reported by Mid-Day.
International cargo accounted for 6,477 MT, or 54.6 per cent of the total, while domestic freight contributed 5,376 MT, or 45.4 per cent. The figures show that the airport’s cargo operations have developed a substantial international component during its initial operating period.
The airport said international freighter services gained momentum in August. Since then, Navi Mumbai International Airport has recorded 285 air traffic movements and received 24 scheduled and chartered international freighters.
Across the nine-month period, imports accounted for 5,274 MT and exports for 6,579 MT. Domestic operations handled 1,528 MT of inbound cargo and 3,848 MT of outbound freight. International operations recorded 3,746 MT of imports and 2,731 MT of exports.
The airport also reported handling eight dedicated cargo freighters in a single day on October 9. The airlines operating those services included Cathay Cargo, Challenge Air, Qatar Airways, Aerologic, AFCOM, MNG Airlines, ASL Airlines and Atlas Air.
Navi Mumbai International Airport’s cargo infrastructure is designed to accommodate widebody and heavy-lift aircraft, including the Boeing 777F, Boeing 747-8F and Antonov An-124. The airport said Cathay Cargo and Hong Kong Air Cargo have established daily scheduled capacity, providing direct connections to trade and e-commerce distribution centres in East Asia.
Silk Way West Airlines has also launched Boeing 777F services from Baku. Its inaugural flight carried nearly 90 tonnes of inbound cargo, according to the airport’s statement.
The cargo terminal includes temperature-controlled areas for pharmaceutical products and agricultural perishables. These facilities are intended for shipments requiring active and passive temperature-control systems, including temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical cargo.
Construction is under way on an automated regional cargo hub for FedEx. The planned facility is expected to strengthen sorting and distribution capabilities at the airport, although the statement did not provide a completion date or capacity figure.
The airport is located around 14 km from the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority, one of India’s major container ports. This proximity creates the possibility of sea-air cargo movement, in which goods arriving by sea can be transferred to air freight networks when shorter transit times are required.
The reported cargo volumes, growing freighter network and planned logistics facilities position Navi Mumbai International Airport as an emerging component of the Mumbai region’s air cargo and multimodal freight infrastructure. The airport’s next operational milestones will include the continued expansion of international freighter services and the development of the FedEx regional cargo hub.
