According to a senior official of Adani Airports Holdings (AAHL), private jet users would soon have access to a dedicated terminal at the recently opened Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA), with operations set to start in September 2026. The airport’s aircraft parking hangars are now under construction and should be finished in the upcoming months.
“The terminal will open in September, although plane handling began on the first day. Hangars are being built. In an interview with Moneycontrol on the eve of NMIA’s opening, Jeet Adani, Director of AAHL, stated that “all the major operators want to shift to Navi Mumbai (from Mumbai).”
Private jet hangars at NMIA have been in high demand. General aviation (GA) operators are increasingly interested in leaving Mumbai’s crowded Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA), according to airport officials, who reported that applications for parking slot licenses are almost three times the available capacity.
AAHL requested that airlines and private aircraft operators leave CSMIA parking bays in April and May of last year so that a new taxiway could be built. Due to the monsoon season, the airport operator’s plan to destroy the current hangars on August 1st was postponed.
There are currently about 24 general aviation aircraft parking lots at CSMIA. In contrast, NMIA will begin operations with 23–25 hangars and eventually expand to 89 hangars, making it one of the biggest GA facilities in the nation. Additionally, AAHL intends to stop permitting small private jets to be parked overnight at CSMIA. Mumbai airport will only allow “pick-and-drop” operations going ahead, with NMIA acting as the designated parking center.
Due to their violation of the obstacle line of sight (OLS), several of the aircraft parked in CSMIA are prohibited. Many hangars violate the OLS, which makes them illegal. The non-compliant ones will therefore need to be broken. This has been long overdue, according to Adani.
The Business Aircraft Operators Association (BAOA), whose members include major corporate organizations like the Aditya Birla Group, JSW Steel, Bajaj Auto, Larsen & Toubro Aviation, and Raymond, has objected to the plan. The group contended that more operational complexity and increased fuel expenses would result from dropping passengers at CSMIA, flying the aircraft to NMIA for parking, and then returning to pick them up.
Despite the worries, AAHL has insisted that both airports—despite being roughly 40 kilometers apart—are handled as a single operational system for convenience and cooperation. The new airport is positioned as a major center for private jet operations in the Mumbai metropolitan area thanks to NMIA’s dedicated GA terminal, which is specifically built to serve VVIP and business aviation customers.
