NEW DELHI: The proposed shifting of 265 international flights from Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) to Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) could now happen after Diwali, instead of Oct 25, and airlines will submit a firm transition plan for the move.A meeting called by Union aviation secretary Samir Sinha on Tuesday with stakeholders managed to break the ice, if not the deadlock, with people in the know saying Indian carriers admitted in the meeting that the issue was being discussed for almost 1.5 years. The next meeting will be held next Tuesday and a final decision may be taken on Oct 20.It is learnt that with the festive season approaching and the “positive direction” of Tuesday’s meeting with Sinha’s intervention, Adani-run Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) offered to begin shifting 265 of CSMIA’s 770 weekly international departures to NMIA post-Diwali, which is exactly a month away. With this offer from MIAL, Sinha is learnt to have asked airlines to prepare their flight shifting plan at the earliest.The secretary is learnt to be keen that the issue not hang fire for much longer and be decided amicably between the airport operator and airlines so that passengers of flights that shift get enough advance notice.Sinha’s brief to stakeholders was clear: Passengers should not be inconvenienced by any last-minute surprises and plan everything so that the transition should go smoothly. The 90-minute meeting was attended by representatives of stakeholders including Air India, IndiGo, Akasa, Adani Airports and Airports Authority of India.“The reconstruction of the over six decades old parts of CSMIA terminal 1 (T1) is a must for safety reason. Govt can’t allow any mishap to happen given the safety fears expressed about oldest parts of T1 in structural safety studies done both by the previous (GVK) and current (Adani) operators of Mumbai Airport. T1 reconstruction has to begin which will require either demolishing it in one go or in phases. The latter method has been chosen to keep interim disruption at lower possible level. Now the most amicable way of doing has to be found,” said people in the know.
