Airlines operating out of Mumbai airport have asked the airport operator to hand over structural safety audits of Terminal 1 before they agree to shift 265 weekly international departures to the Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) from October 25. The pushback sets up a crucial stakeholder meeting on October 13.

In a letter to Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) on Friday, the Airline Operators Committee (AOC) listed six additions it wants on the meeting agenda: the consultant reports MIAL has cited regarding T1’s safety, a presentation on the redevelopment plan, the status of Terminal 2’s expansion, monthly capacity data for both terminals for 2026, the alternatives MIAL considered, and a review of slot-allocation compliance if capacity is reduced.

What the ministry decided

Both airports are run by the Adani group — NMIA directly and Mumbai through MIAL. The airlines’ letter follows the civil aviation ministry’s decision to defer MIAL’s plan to cut 265 of T2’s 770 weekly international departures, spread across 46 airlines, to free room for domestic flights that would be displaced by T1’s partial rebuilding.

MIAL had planned to start demolishing and rebuilding the northern section of Terminal 1B in January 2027. Ahead of the work, it wrote to airlines asking them to either move certain flights to NMIA, about 50 km away, or suspend them temporarily from October 25. The operator has maintained the arrangement is necessary and that flight timings can be restored once T1’s redevelopment adds capacity.

Airlines back the rebuild, question the scale

The airlines support the redevelopment itself. What they question is whether a third of the airport’s international departures really needs to move to Navi Mumbai. They want to see the independent consultants’ reports MIAL has cited for its concerns about T1’s structural safety, and a detailed presentation of the redevelopment plan.

The committee also wants answers on T2’s expansion, which was expected to add roughly five million passengers a year to capacity — asking for its current status, scope and timeline. Month-by-month 2026 data on actual capacity use against declared capacity at both terminals, the airlines believe, would show whether the cuts are justified or whether existing infrastructure could be used more efficiently during the rebuild.

Alternatives and next steps

The AOC has also asked MIAL to explain the alternatives it weighed in its demand-and-capacity assessment, including a temporary passenger-processing facility to handle domestic traffic moving to T2. It has sought a formal review of compliance with the ministry’s slot-allocation guidelines if airport capacity is reduced. The ministry’s intervention has put the October 25 transition on hold, asking MIAL to work with airlines on a revised plan. Monday’s meeting is expected to take up the safety assessments, capacity constraints and the rationale for the move.