Air India Express, a low-cost subsidiary of Air India, is set to be among the first airlines to operate from the new Navi Mumbai International Airport.
In a post on X, shared on November 21, 2025, the airline announced it will begin daily flights to Bengaluru and Delhi from the new airport starting from December 25, 2025, its opening day.
Flights to Delhi will run on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. From January 1, 2026, the airline plans to increase its service, operating twice daily on both routes.
The airline said it offers a wide range of services from Mumbai and Pune. Beginning December 1, 2025, the airline said it will start flying to Nagpur from Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport (NAG), expanding its network in Maharashtra just before the opening of Navi Mumbai Airport later that month.
“We are happy to work with the airport as it opens up capacity for Mumbai and its catchment area, putting one of India’s largest transport hubs back on a rapid growth trajectory,” Aloke Singh, Managing Director of Air India Express said in a statement, seen by The Times of India.
While Air India Express claims it will be the first to fly from the new airport, other Indian airlines have also announced inaugural flights from the airport on its first day of operations.
In November 2025, Akasa Air announced plans to begin flights from Navi Mumbai International Airport to four Indian cities starting December 25, 2025. Similarly, IndiGo also stated that it will commence commercial operations from the new airport on that same day.
Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated the new Navi Mumbai International Airport on October 8, 2025.
Phase 1 of Navi Mumbai International Airport was built at a cost of around Rs. 19,650 crores ($2.37 billion) and once fully operational will welcome 90 million passengers a year and handle 3.25 million metric tons of cargo.
