‘Navi Mumbai airport to come up in 4-5 years’

MUMBAI: Navi Mumbai airport will come up in four to five years, minister of state for civil aviation Jayant Sinha said on Wednesday. Mumbai, with its single runway and saturation of slots, remains the “single-most bottleneck for civil aviation in India”, he added.
Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had claimed that the first flight from the new airport would take off in December 2019.
Sinha was addressing a summit of Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, a global aviation consultancy firm, through video-conference.He said given the robust demand for domestic travel two factors need to be considered: Airlines inducting aircraft to expand fleets and availability of slots at major airports like Mumbai and Delhi. Taking into consideration oil prices and airport capacity, the government has forecast a 15% growth in air passengers, which translates to one billion flights. The unprecedented growth of air passenger traffic demonstrates the demand for aviation despite many challenges, he said, adding that tier-2 and 3 cities show tremendous potential.
The minister also spoke about low-cost long haul flights, the latest in global air travel, though yet to debut in India. “We lack a direct low-cost alternative to Europe and the West Coast. International traffic growth from India will be tremendously boosted if low-cost carriers start providing connectivity to Europe,” Sinha said, adding that a flight, say from Kolkata to London at competitive pricing, would be interesting.