The skies above Panvel creek were dotted with aircraft as operations commenced at Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) on Thursday. The airport handled 48 flights connecting nine domestic destinations and serving over 4000 passengers, on its first day of operations, with no delays or diversions, with its maiden arrival being IndiGo’s flight 6E460 from Bengaluru at 8 am. Another IndiGo flight, 6E882, to Hyderabad, was the first to take off from the facility at 8.40 am.

First impressions

The experience of passengers was mostly positive. A wheelchair-bound flier, Lakshmi Manikantan, one of the 160 passengers who flew in from Bengaluru on the first commercial flight to land at NMIA, told mid-day, “It was a great experience for me; in fact, this was the first time I travelled by air. There were proper facilities for those with disabilities. I did not feel any inconvenience during the flight.”