Mumbai airport has consistently ranked last among India's 10 busiest airports in on-time performance (OTP), according to data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). In January, only 49% of flights departed on time, meaning roughly one in two flights was delayed. This improved to 55% in February and 72% in March.
Factors Behind Poor Performance
The airport's continued presence at the bottom of the rankings was expected, as the Navi Mumbai airport, commissioned in December last year, can only accommodate growth in air travel demand from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region but cannot decongest the existing Mumbai airport.
A flight is classified as delayed if it departs more than 15 minutes after its scheduled time. However, not all delays are due to air traffic congestion at Mumbai airport. Many flights depart late because of airline operational reasons, crew shortages, or poor weather—factors unrelated to the airport itself.
Unlike other major metros such as Delhi, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad, Mumbai airport lacks a parallel runway. All takeoffs and landings occur on a single operational runway, causing air traffic congestion. The OTP data accounts for all delays, regardless of the cause.
Top Performers
The airports that consistently ranked in the top three during January to March were Chennai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad. In March, 93% of departures from Chennai, 90% from Hyderabad, and 88% from Bengaluru took off on time.
Airlines Affected
Airline-wise data reinforces the pattern. For most carriers, including IndiGo, Air India Group, Akasa Air, and SpiceJet, Mumbai registers a comparatively low OTP among their top stations. For instance, IndiGo records an OTP of around 78% in Mumbai, significantly lower than its performance at Chennai (97%) and Kolkata (93%).
Navi Mumbai Airport Role
The new airport at Navi Mumbai has allowed airlines to add more flights from the Mumbai region without further congesting the existing airport. However, to decongest Mumbai, airlines would need to move some slots from Mumbai to Navi Mumbai, which currently does not make commercial sense, according to an airline official. Slot allocations at Mumbai, built over years, cannot be arbitrarily withdrawn, limiting any immediate redistribution of traffic.
Mumbai airport continues to handle roughly 950 flights per day, comparable to pre-NMIA operations. The NMIA airport handles about 140 flight movements daily, with air traffic expected to rise to 350 flights per day by year-end.
