Mumbai: Over a month after it began handling airline flights, the Navi Mumbai airport quietly moved from being open only for 12 hours to 24-hour operations on Saturday, an aviation source said.Currently, though no night flights are scheduled, the last arrival of the day is now at 9.50 pm, while the first departure is at 7.10 am. When the airport started handling flights on December 25, it was open from 8 am to 8 pm. “Only 2 flights were added for now, but in the coming days and weeks airlines are expected to stretch their schedule at Navi Mumbai,” the source said. A sizeable jump in flight volumes is expected after the end of March, when the airline summer schedule begins.On January 12, Navi Mumbai airport marked a key operational milestone, with a total of 1 lakh passengers handled in the 19 days since its opening. The number of air traffic movements at the new airport is currently capped at 10 landings or take-offs per hour. Sources said it will increase to 20 flights per hour from April.In Europe and the US, most airports, except major hubs, shut down for the night, typically between 11 pm and 5 am, in keeping with night curfew norms to limit noise pollution. Stranded passengers must leave the terminals when these airports shut down. However, major Indian airports remain open 24/7, granting stranded passengers a safe, secure place to stay the night.
