IndiGo and Air India Express Will Move Gulf Flights From Mumbai to Navi Mumbai Airport

On October 25, 2026, IndiGo and the Air India Group announced that they will move part of their Mumbai operations from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (BOM) to the new Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMI). The shift starts with Air India Express in December 2026, and IndiGo plans to begin international flights from Navi Mumbai in February 2027.

Both airlines made the announcements together with Adani Airport Holdings Limited (AAHL), which runs both Mumbai airports. The stated purpose is to free space at BOM so its aging Terminal 1 can be rebuilt.

Which IndiGo flights are moving

According to IndiGo’s joint statement with AAHL, as carried by PTI, the airline will progressively transfer 12 daily international departures from BOM to NMI. They cover its Mumbai flights to Bahrain, Riyadh, Dammam, Jeddah, Madinah, Kuwait, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah, Muscat, Dhaka and Jakarta.

IndiGo will also add a new daily Kathmandu service from Navi Mumbai, which brings its international network there to 12 destinations between February and July 2027. The domestic flights that feed those international services will move with them, so connecting passengers can transfer at one airport.

The slots IndiGo vacates at BOM are not going away. The airline said it will use the freed capacity for new routes across Asia, Africa and Europe during 2027, flown with its A320 and A321 family jets, including the Airbus A321XLR.

IndiGo has not set final dates. It said it will announce them, along with the new services from BOM, once project coordination is complete and the required operating approvals are in hand.

Air India Express starts in December

The Air India Group said Air India Express will operate four daily domestic flights from Navi Mumbai from December 2026. Its existing Oman services and planned Kuwait services follow from January 2027, with Kuwait still subject to the necessary approvals.

After that, Air India Express services to Jeddah, Riyadh, Dammam, Doha, Muscat and Sharjah will move in stages. The group expects the move to be complete by the IATA Northern Summer 2027 season, which begins in late March.

The group said operating from both airports lets it keep its historical slot rights at BOM. Air India Express already flies one international route from Navi Mumbai, to Abu Dhabi, Swarajya reported on October 14.

Why Mumbai is splitting its flights

Mumbai’s main airport handles about 55 million passengers a year and has little room to grow. Rebuilding Terminal 1 will raise that terminal’s capacity from about 15 million to 20 million passengers a year, but the work removes capacity while it runs.

AAHL’s first phase aims to shift about 5 million passengers a year to Navi Mumbai, and it says about 91% of BOM’s traffic stays where it is, according to the PTI report. Airlines keep their historical BOM slots, which the operator says will be restored when the redevelopment is finished.

Navi Mumbai opened in December 2025 with one terminal designed for 20 million passengers a year, with expansion planned to 90 million. Until now it has been almost entirely domestic, which is why moving whole Gulf networks there is a real change for travelers.

The plan was delayed once already

This is a negotiated version of a harder plan. AAHL had proposed taking 265 of the 770 weekly international departure slots at BOM’s Terminal 2 from October 25, 2026, with IndiGo losing 74 weekly departures and Air India 33, Swarajya reported.

Airlines objected because their winter schedules were already on sale. On October 6, Business Today reported that the Ministry of Civil Aviation had proposed postponing the shift by a few weeks and asked the airlines and AAHL for a firm transition plan by October 20.

By mid-October the airport operator had agreed not to disturb slots during the winter schedule, and the transfer of international flights was pushed toward the start of the summer schedule on March 28, 2027, according to Swarajya. The October 25 announcements are the airlines’ own phased plans within that reset.

Several of the routes on IndiGo’s list have already been disrupted this month: the airline has canceled its Riyadh flights through October 31.