Two new airports that will change how Indians fly

New York JFK, Newark or LaGuardia? London Heathrow, Gatwick or Stansted? Tokyo Haneda or Narita? Paris CDG or Orly? Come winter 2025, add to this list — IGI or NIA? CSMIA or NMIA? The biggest cities are connected to the rest of the world through multiple airports. India’s big two, Delhi and Mumbai, have been exceptions even as air traffic within the country has soared and intrepid Indians have become top globetrotters.

This aviation anomaly is now getting the correction it needs — first with the launch on October 8 of Navi Mumbai International Airport and, on October 30, of Noida International Airport, giving Mumbai-MMR and Delhi-NCR, as the aggregate areas of the western and northern megapolises are called, two new, modern international aerohubs.

(But guess who beat Delhi and Mumbai to it? In January 2023, it was actually Goa that became the first Indian city to get multiple airports when Mopa opened and began operating in parallel with the existing Dabolim airport.) For flyers to and from Delhi and Mumbai, the launch of NIA and NMIA will translate into more flights not just between the two cities but with other metropolises and increasingly flying direct on international routes. And for airlines, IndiGo and Tata Group’s Air India and the emerging Akasa, the two new airports will be key to the massive expansion plans they have.

According to industry insiders, by the end of this decade, the combination of Indira Gandhi International Airport and Noida and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport and NMIA, will see Delhi and Mumbai emerge as mega aviation hubs. And they will create the operating space for airline companies to take the next big leap and become desi super-connectors, carving for themselves a pie in international transits that airlines from West Asia and Europe now dominate.

A common practice at big hubs abroad, AI & IndiGo, which have hundreds of aircraft on order, are eyeing dedicated terminals and many more parking bays for seamless passenger transfers in both Delhi and Mumbai.

Jeet Adani, director (airports) of Adani Group which operates both the Mumbai airports, recently told TOI, “Once NMIA T2 is ready (by 2030), I can give it to an (Indian) airline and its partner…. What I ultimately see happening is an alliance split. One airport (CSMIA or NMIA) will be the base for One World and the other for Star Alliance. Collectively, our aviation ecosystem has to get the traffic currently transiting between India and the rest of the world through nearby hubs in the Gulf, Southeast Asia and even Europe (for the North America market).”

The JV companies developing second airports, GMR in Goa, Adani and Flughafen Zurich in Noida, know their footfalls will supplement or even surpass those of the existing airports in these places. In the case of Mumbai and Goa, the old airports are capacity constrained. But that’s not so for Delhi, with IGI, which operates with three terminals and four runways, yet to reach saturation. NIA’s addition is, therefore, likely to supercharge Delhi’s growth as India’s largest aviation hub.

Take the case of Goa. Pre-Covid, when it had only Dabolim airport, Goa’s maximum annual air traffic (domestic and international combined) was 84.6 lakh between April 2018 and March 2019, per Airports Authority of India. Mopa opened on Jan 5, 2023. In the one year from April 2023 to March 2024, Goa has seen 1.1 crore flyers between the two airports combined. For Delhi and Mumbai, this will happen too, and on a much larger scale. Delhi, in fact, will effectively have three airports, with the small Hindon terminal in Ghaziabad — used by Air India Express and IndiGo, besides Udan carriers like Star Air — also planning capacity additions.

An airline official said both NIA and NMIA have, to their advantage, massive catchment areas. “NIA and NMIA will quickly need to add terminals and runways. We will be able to operate more flights at more convenient times. These new airports mean more capacity, and coupled with big aircraft orders of AI group, IndiGo, Akasa and others, bilaterals with other countries is also likely to be upped. For instance, Dubai bilaterals are fully utilised by both sides and UAE is the biggest international destination for Indians,” the official said.

NIA CEO Christoph Schnellmann recently told TOI, “We believe in the future of aviation in India and will provide much-needed additional airport infrastructure for Delhi-NCR and UP. Two airports in Delhi-NCR will bring enhanced connectivity and more options for travellers and businesses. NIA will play an important role in fostering trade, commerce and tourism, by adding aviation capacity to the region.”

However, in the initial days, teething troubles are likely for the new airports, especially NIA, which is located in Jewar, nearly 60km from Noida city. “The main issue is connectivity. If it takes 2-3 hours to reach the new airports and the cost of doing so is very high, then people will have to rethink where to fly in and out of,” former AAI chairman V P Agrawal said. The central and state govts have ambitious multi-modal connectivity plans for NIA, NMIA and IGI with trains, metro and buses but those are still some years away from becoming a reality.
Select The Times of India as your preferred source on Google Search