As Navi Mumbai International Airport prepares to begin flight operations on December 25, it adds a new chapter to Mumbai’s long history of aviation. The city’s engagement with air travel began in the late 19th century with balloon ascents, followed by early and often unsuccessful aeroplane experiments, the establishment of civil aviation at Juhu, and the gradual expansion of Santacruz into the country’s busiest airport. The opening of Navi Mumbai airport now extends that evolution, reflecting how Mumbai’s relationship with flying has developed over more than a century.
The first recorded aerial ascent in the city took place in 1889, when British pioneering balloonist Spencer Perceval, who had made over 700 balloon ascents, took off from the grounds of the old Government House in Parel, where the Haffkine Institute now stands. At the time, hydrogen gas balloon ascents were used for scientific experiments, adventure and commercial entertainment, with people paying gate money to witness the spectacle.
Perceval further thrilled the massive crowd by descending with the help of a parachute.
The next major balloon ascent that Bombay witnessed came in 1891. Crowds turned out in large numbers to watch Jeanette Van Tassell, described by newspapers as “big, young, handsome and blonde”, take off along with her husband P A Van Tassell from an unnamed ground in the city. The performance, however, did not go entirely to plan, with Jeanette suffering a minor parachute malfunction, according to Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, a chronicler of the time.
The accident that ended aerial ascents
What finally brought an end to ballooning as public entertainment in Bombay was the tragic accident of December 10, 1891, involving 26-year-old Lieutenant R N Mansfield of the Royal Naval Reserve. Days earlier, on November 13, Mansfield had successfully descended by parachute from more than 11,000 feet in his balloon Wanderer and promised to repeat the feat.
The second ascent was staged at the erstwhile Victoria Gardens in Byculla, now Veermata Jijabai Udyan, and drew a large gathering that included George Robert Canning Harris, the Governor of Bombay, and senior civil and military officials.
While the take-off was smooth, disaster struck when the balloon reached an altitude of about 400 feet. It burst with a loud explosion and began to fall rapidly.
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“Mansfield made the most desperate efforts to disengage the parachute from the collapsed balloon, but it had become entangled in the ropes and the unfortunate man was soon forced to release his hold. The spectators uttered cries of dismay as they saw his body come twirling towards them and some of the ladies fainted at the sight,” a report published in The New York Times stated.
An inquiry later found that the balloon had been damaged in an earlier accident and had not been properly repaired. The incident sent shockwaves across India and abroad, and for years Bombay authorities refused to grant permission for any flying or floating objects over Mumbai’s skies.
From balloons to airplanes
The first powered flight that attempted to take off from Bombay was before the First World War and was unsuccessful. “Since that date and up to the outbreak of the War in 1914, the only aerial spectacle offered to the Bombay public was a much advertised aeroplane flight from the Oval. This venture was a fiasco. The aeroplane would only rise a few feet from the ground and at that elevation collided violently with the iron railing,” wrote Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, a chronicler of those times.
Ballooning faded from public memory with the arrival of powered flight. During the First World War, an airstrip at Kalyan was used for military purposes, with aircraft typically operating from grass fields.
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A turning point came with the setting up of the Juhu Aerodrome, initially during the war years, which later became the home of the Bombay Flying Club, India’s first club for flying enthusiasts. By 1930, according to Flight International, the world’s oldest aviation news magazine, the club had 161 members. It operated four aircraft of its own, including one provided by the government, while five others were privately owned by members. Patrons who paid a membership fee of Rs 50 flew sorties to Ahmedabad, Poona, Deolali, and Porbandar from the strip, which often flooded during the monsoon.
The same airstrip went on to become Bombay’s primary airport and was the site of J R D Tata’s historic first flight on October 15, 1932. Flying from Karachi via Ahmedabad, Tata landed at Juhu with 25 kg of airmail, marking the birth of India’s civil aviation industry and Tata Airlines, later Air India.
Expansion and modern airports
Juhu Aerodrome remained the city’s main airport until Santa Cruz airport opened in 1942, initially handling six flights a day. As air traffic grew, the need for expansion became evident.
A committee headed by Tata had recommended a new terminal as early as 1967. Construction began in November 1977 to build a new terminal at Sahar, across the runway from Santa Cruz, with the first phase opening in 1980. The terminal had 42 check-in counters, 18 more than Santa Cruz’s international section. In comparison, the new Navi Mumbai airport will have 88 check-in counters.
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The expansion was not without setbacks. On September 21, 1979, Bombay’s Santa Cruz airport shut down for the first time in its 20-year history after a fire gutted the international terminal, killing a family of three passengers in transit. Firefighters battled the blaze for nearly 30 hours. Domestic and international flights were paralysed, and special rail services were arranged to move stranded passengers. Temporary facilities and round the clock repairs allowed services to resume.
The next chapter
In January 2009, the international Terminal 2A was demolished to make way for a new integrated terminal, which opened in January 2014. Even that expansion proved insufficient, leading to the decision to build a second airport.
In August 2007, the Union Cabinet approved a greenfield airport at Navi Mumbai under a public private partnership model. After multiple delays and changes in developers, the Adani Group took over the project in 2021 through Navi Mumbai International Airport Limited, a joint venture with the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO).
With flight operations now set to begin on December 25 in a phased manner, Navi Mumbai International Airport marks the latest chapter in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region’s long aviation history, a journey that began with hydrogen balloons and peril, long before concrete runways reshaped the city’s skies.
