The standoff between Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) and airlines over the relocation of operations linked to Terminal 1 redevelopment has intensified, with the airport operator proposing to temporarily discontinue 265 weekly international departure slots from Terminal 2 (T2) from October 25, CNBC TV-18 reported.
According to a communication sent by MIAL to airlines, international departure capacity at T2 will be reduced by 33%, with the figure rounded up to the next whole number.
The schedule covers 46 airlines and 770 weekly international departure slots, of which 265 are proposed to be temporarily discontinued.
IndiGo faces the biggest reduction, with 74 weekly slots affected. Air India faces a reduction of 33 slots, while Akasa Air and Air India Express face cuts of 11 and seven slots respectively.
SpiceJet is set to lose five slots. Among international carriers, Emirates and Etihad Airways are each facing reductions of 10 weekly departures.
MIAL has asked airlines to identify the specific departure slots they want to temporarily discontinue by 4 pm on October 6.
If an airline does not respond within the deadline, the airport operator said it would decide which slots to remove based on operational, capacity and implementation considerations.
The final allocation plan will subsequently be shared with the concerned stakeholders.
Terminal 1 redevelopment drives capacity changes
The proposed cuts are linked to the redevelopment of Mumbai airport’s Terminal 1. MIAL plans to begin reallocating vacated resources at T2 from October 26, including check-in counters, baggage belts, boarding gates and operational office space, to scheduled domestic operators.
The move is intended to facilitate the transfer of about five million passengers a year from T1 to T2 while redevelopment work is under way.
The proposal has faced opposition from international airlines. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has told the Civil Aviation Ministry that it is opposed to compulsory airline relocations and has argued that any transfer should be voluntary and commercially and operationally viable.
IATA has also opposed using reduced capacity at Mumbai airport to require airlines to shift a specified share of their operations to Navi Mumbai. It has sought protection for airlines’ existing Mumbai airport slot entitlements during the transition.
MIAL has maintained that the T1 redevelopment schedule remains unchanged and that airlines must prepare for the planned operational transition.
