Mumbai airport is choked, did you say? But it is expanding

The airport was impacted by the suspension of services by Jet Airways because that airline had a significant presence. Amongst the top airports in the country, Mumbai was the only one which had domestic market leader IndiGo ranked second in air traffic movements below Jet Airways. However, with capacity being distributed – the airport saw more seats than what it serviced in the days of Jet Airways.

First off the block has been national carrier Air India, which started flights to London Stansted last week. The airline already operated to Stansted from Amritsar and in absence of slots at Heathrow is connecting Mumbai to Stansted. Jet Airways was a major operator between Mumbai and London and there has been a capacity deficit after the suspension of the airline.

Next off the block will be IndiGo, which has announced flights to Chengdu in China. The airline has announced flights to Chengdu from March 15, 2020. However, with China grappling with coronavirus and Indian carriers having suspended operations to that country, the flight to Chengdu may be put on hold.

At the beginning of Summer Schedule, Russian carrier Ural Airlines will land in Mumbai from Moscow Domodedovo, one of the four airports serving the Russian capital Moscow. Mumbai will thus get connected to Moscow with a direct flight after 2008 when Aeroflot last operated a non-stop service to the financial capital of India.

Aeroflot also returns to Mumbai, year starting non-stop services from its hub at Moscow Sheremetyevo starting early July. No Indian carrier operates to Russia and Aeroflot is known to offer discounted fares to North America, a market which every airline is trying to target. These efforts have intensified after the suspension of Jet Airways, which had a sizable presence at London and Amsterdam to feed its partners network across the Atlantic.

Vietnamese low-cost carrier VietJetAir, which launched services to New Delhi last year, is also launching services to Mumbai from May 2020. The airline will connect Mumbai to Ho Chi Minh City – the largest Vietnamese city — and capital Hanoi. VietJetAir would de-risk its current China and Korea centric strategy with expansion to India amid increasing tourists from India and improving defence collaboration amongst the two nations.

Mumbai will also be connected to Almaty by the national carrier of Kazakhstan, Air Astana, from June 1 . This will be the second destination for Air Astana in India as the airline already operates double daily services to New Delhi. This will also be the second connection to Central Asia for Mumbai, with Uzbekistan Airlines operating to Tashkent from Mumbai for the last year and more.

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║ Airport ║ Airline ║ From ║

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║ London Stansted ║ Air India ║ Already Started ║

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║ Chengdu ║ IndiGo ║ 15th March 2020 ║

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║ Moscow Domodedovo ║ Ural Airlines ║ 30th March 2020 ║

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║ Hanoi ║ Vietjet Air ║ 14th May 2020 ║

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║ Ho Chi Minh City ║ Vietjet Air ║ 15th May 2020 ║

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║ Almaty ║ Air Astana ║ 1st June 2020 ║

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║ Moscow Sherametyevo ║ Aeroflot ║ 2nd July 2020 ║

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Mumbai airport was short of boarding gates during the night time and short of runway capacity during the day time. With the domestic capacity of Jet Airways came back soon, the international side has not been that fast, increasing the availability of boarding gates and bays during the night time, and to some extent during the day time as well.

It always is heartening to see new connections and more so at a time when coronavirus has impacted travel to China and other countries in South East Asia. If the epidemic remains contained to that part of the world, there could be a spurt in traffic into and out of India as holidaymakers look at India as an alternative and Indian’s draw up plans to travel to regions other than South East Asia.

Either way, seven new connections within a span of six months is an achievement for an airport as constrained as Mumbai. The city should be proud.

Ameya Joshi is the founder of aviation analysis blog NetworkThoughts. Ameya writes a lot on aviation. You can catch all his columns here.