Akasa Air-Navi Mumbai Airport Flights: 50 departures in a day from Adani-backed airport? What CEO Vinay Dube confirmed

Vinay Dube , Akasa Air ’s founder and chief executive officer, said that the airline plans to operate 50 flights from the upcoming Adani-backed Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA). He further said that the airline will start the operation with about 15 departures in a day, which will be a combination of both domestic and international.

The Navi Mumbai airport is expected to start operations by the end of August. However, the exact date of the opening of the airport is yet to be finalised.

Dube claimed Akasa Air, India’s youngest major airline, would be the airline with the most number of flights from there. "I'm sure there'll be others, but I don't believe there'll be any other airline in India, or in fact the world, that would have a larger percentage of their network based out of Navi Mumbai Airport as compared to Akasa," Dube told reporters at a virtual roundtable on Friday, as reported by Economic Times.

In a press statement, Arun Bansal, CEO of Adani Airports Holdings Limited, said, "Their rapid growth and forward-looking approach make them an ideal partner in NMIA's journey to becoming a key domestic and international hub."

Budget airline Akasa Air currently operates 32 daily flights from the slot-constrained Mumbai airport. "In Mumbai, we have close to 32 departures today and Navi Mumbai, we expect to take that up to about 75 to 80 odd departures as we exit winters. That's how significant this is for us," said Dube as quoted by ET.

Dube further stated that the airline will continue to maintain these flights with "no plans to consolidate operations.” The carrier will also focus on connecting tier-II cities through its Navi Mumbai hub.

Akasa Air is the second airline to make a deal with Navi Mumbai airport. IndiGo will be the first to commence flights from the new airport. The airlines plan to start with over 18 daily departures to 15 cities from day one of the opening of the airport and aims to increase operations to 79 departures by November.

Akasa Air will start with over 100 domestic flights a week and scale up the operations to over 300 domestic flights and 50 international flights a week in this year’s winter schedule. The airline also plans to expand to 10 parking bases by the end of FY27, focusing on international growth in key Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian markets.

Dube said the airline will have a mix of prime slots as well as slots spread across the day.