Mumbai airport holds international slots until March 2027 after airlines object to cut

Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL), which runs Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA), has assured airlines that their historical slots will stay untouched until March 2027, according to Mathrubhumi. The assurance followed a meeting with carriers on October 13. Airlines have said they have not agreed to a reduction in slots or to a transfer of international operations to Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA).

The proposal and the pushback

MIAL had proposed temporarily cutting 265 of Mumbai's 770 weekly international departure slots from October 25, to make room for passengers displaced by partial work on Terminal 1 (T1), Mathrubhumi reports. It says the cut could have affected 46 Indian and foreign airlines, with about 38 international departures a day facing reductions. Airlines objected, saying the winter schedule had been approved in June and aircraft deployment was already under way. The Free Press Journal, in an article from October 12, describes the cut as 33% of international flights and says MIAL's September 30 position was to relocate or temporarily suspend operations. It says the Ministry of Civil Aviation then asked for a collaborative, phased transition roadmap. Mathrubhumi dates the ministry's intervention to October 3.

The Business Today report on Emirates adds that MIAL's proposal had been to move 265 of 770 weekly international departures to NMIA by October 25, and that MIAL assured carriers international flights would not shift until at least the end of March 2027.

What the airlines are asking

Mathrubhumi reports that the Airline Operators Committee, which represents 47 airlines at the airport, wrote to MIAL demanding evidence for the transfer and asking that no slots be cut without following the Ministry of Civil Aviation's May 2013 slot guidelines and the IATA Worldwide Airport Slot Guidelines. The committee says talks with individual airlines should not count as collective approval. It also asks why departure slots must be cut, noting that T1 handles fewer than 10 million passengers a year against a stated capacity of 15 million, and that Terminal 2 is expected to gain about five million passengers of capacity by March 2027. The Free Press Journal, by contrast, says T1 handles about 15 million passengers a year and is being upgraded to 20 million.

The Free Press Journal also reports that IATA backed the ministry's pause on unilateral decisions, and that Adani Airport Holdings says NMIA has the ground handling, in-flight catering and hotel infrastructure to absorb displaced traffic.

Dates and status

Mathrubhumi lists the next steps: airline-MIAL video consultations on network planning by October 21, a stakeholder meeting on October 28 where MIAL is expected to present a transition plan, and the first phase of the T1 redevelopment scheduled to start on January 15, 2027. The Free Press Journal said the roadmap was due to be presented to the civil aviation secretary on October 20.

Mathrubhumi says MIAL proposes moving about five million international passengers a year from Terminal 2 to NMIA from the summer 2027 schedule, that no flights have been moved, and that the proposal is still under discussion.