Adani Airports CEO Tells Foreign Airlines to Vacate Mumbai Slots From April 2027

Adani Airport Holdings chief executive Arun Bansal told reporters at the Aviation India Summit on November 3, 2026, that foreign airlines must leave their Mumbai airport slots from April. He compared the notice to a landlord asking a tenant to vacate, and said the next airport is the airline's choice. Mumbai International Airport already moved the international transfer off the winter timetable onto the summer 2027 season that starts in April.

Bansal said the November 5 slot publication is the summer 2027 allocation deadline, not a date the operator invented, and that Adani Airport Holdings will follow any government order to extend it. He said airlines are not required to go to Navi Mumbai International Airport in particular.

Key details

• Terminal 1 at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport opened in 1964. The operator cited Structwel (2017) and IIT Bombay (2024) audits as the case for rebuilding it, with demolition timed to the Summer 2027 schedule and a replacement targeted for 2030.
• Mumbai International Airport Limited proposed cutting about five million passengers a year from the summer 2027 season. Air India Group, IndiGo, and Akasa Air have plans covering about three million international passengers, around 60 percent of that shift.
• Domestic flying that leaves Terminal 1 has to squeeze into Terminal 2. Bansal said matching domestic feeders should move with the international banks so connecting passengers do not change airports. Slots return when Terminal 1 reopens.

We are telling airlines, from April you have to vacate the slots at Mumbai airport, after that where you go is your choice.

Why it matters

The November 5 file is the first public list of who kept Mumbai metal and who did not ask for Navi Mumbai. Bansal also said Adani Airport Holdings is speeding Terminal 2 at the new airport while the old Terminal 1 is rebuilt from 15 million to 20 million passengers a year.