10 things you must know about Navi Mumbai International Airport, set for inauguration on Wednesday

While the airport will be inaugurated on Wednesday by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and in the presence of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Ministers Eknath Shinde and Ajit Pawar, among others, the first flight is likely to take off in December. Whether it will be Air India, Indigo, or Akasa Air remains to be seen.

The airport has four gates and three centres — Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie — managing all international and domestic clients. The airport will have 88 check-in counters in total. Out of these, 66 will be in the traditional format where an airline staff member helps you with a boarding pass and check-in, and 22 will be self-check-in counters.

Initially, the flights will operate between 8 am to 8 pm, at least in the first month. While the airport’s capacity is 40 ATMs (air traffic management, which manages and controls the movement of aircraft), the initial days will run on 10 ATMs, which means that in one hour, 10 aircraft will be allowed to land or take off. The airlines are likely to announce their routes and ticket sales soon.

NMIA plans to have four terminals and two parallel runways (Runway 1 of 3,700m length/ 60m width and Runway 2 of 3,700m length and 60m width), but for now, only one runway and terminal will be in operation. The design process for the second terminal has begun, and the Adani Group plans to invest an additional Rs 30,000 crore towards the expansion of the second phase. It had invested about Rs 20,000 crores in the first phase.

NMIA is positioned as an “international aviation hub” similar to Dubai or Heathrow airport. In the coming days, the airport, which currently has a capacity to handle 20 million passengers per annum (MPPA), is eyeing 90 MPPA and sees itself as the one-stop for all direct flights to all major destinations in Europe and the United States.

The plan is to make NMIA the country’s largest MRO (maintenance, repair, and overhaul) facility with a cargo hub similar to that of Shanghai. In the initial phase, it has a cargo capacity of 0.5 million metric tonnes annually (MMTPA), which is expected to go up to 3.2 MMTPA in the final phase.

The airport will use a Category II instrument landing system, which will allow pilots to make safe landings at visibility levels as low as runway visual range (RVR) of 300 m due to fog, heavy rain, or other weather conditions. For context, Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport requires a minimum RVR of 550 m for landing.

Nearly 64 per cent of the visitors today are Gen Z and millennials who are tech-savvy, said one of the officials. In line with this, all boarding gates will be Digi Yatra-enabled and have a trusted travel programme to avoid queuing up at immigration. There will also be visibility on queuing time outside the gates.

Unlike conventional food courts, the airport will feature a “food hall” concept where passengers won’t need to visit each kiosk separately to place their orders. Instead, they can pre-order from multiple outlets at once and receive a single consolidated delivery. Alongside dedicated restaurants such as Wagamama and Coco Cafe By Coco Cart, the airport will also house Bombay Bond — a cluster of four popular brands: KMC, Bombay Brasserie, Bayroute, and Foo. The four will share a common seating area, allowing guests to mix and match dishes from any of them. Passengers can also order food directly to their boarding gate through the airport’s dedicated app.

The airport will be dotted with immersive digital art installations. There are seven circular LED screens at the departure gates to welcome travellers. Besides them, there are two large interactive displays inside, and a giant installation — said to be among the world’s largest — just beyond the security check, all designed to create a ripple effect. In the coming months, the airport’s art programme will introduce more installations, including a fabric forest crafted from threads sourced from across Maharashtra, and an immersive digital experience right after security, intended to help soothe passenger stress before boarding.