IndiGo to start ATR operations from Navi Mumbai this Summer

IndiGo, India’s largest carrier by fleet and domestic market share, will start basing three ATR 72-600 at Navi Mumbai starting Northern Summer 2026 schedule. The airline will start flights to Rajkot, Diu, Goa – Dabolim, Belgaum and Hyderabad from Navi Mumbai with the ATR’s. The three ATR’s will also be used to operate Goa Dabolim – Nashik, Goa Dabolim – Aurangabad and Goa Dabolim – Coimbatore flights, which are currently on different rotations. Additionally, Hyderabad – Belgaum flights will also see changes. This opens up a new chapter for both IndiGo and Navi Mumbai airport.

ATR rotations

There remains significant gap available for two more flights from Navi Mumbai, where there can be a departure at 1915 and the aircraft can be back at night along with an early departure with the aircraft coming back by 1000 hours. I would assume IndiGo is planning to add a new station to operate with ATR’s. Of the multiple options that I could think, I place my bets on Bhavnagar with the current blank slots allowing a morning – evening operation. However, Bhavnagar has a good international feed and operations at NMIA may not be great for that.

Why ATRs?

IndiGo has made multiple changes to its ATR network over the years. The airline which otherwise has seen very steady Airbus operations historically, is yet to get a grip of the ATR network in true sense. CSMIA Mumbai has always discouraged turboprop operations as they eat into operations and reduce movements per hour. With Navi Mumbai being a new airport, IndiGo seems to have managed some headway with ATR operations at Navi Mumbai. The double daily service to Kolhapur, Belgaum and Diu are the new routes for IndiGo from Mumbai region, with the rest being serviced from CSMIA Mumbai. 

IndiGo’s Navi Mumbai ATR operations ensure that they have slots and night parking at the airport, but may not have high confidence in loads and yields to deploy the A320 operations at the moment. While it continues with A320neo engine issues leading to grounding and thus not having incremental A320 family induction at the moment, the ATR network is being redeployed from some other place since ATRs have only gone down in the network over the last year.

Network Thoughts

IndiGo has two ATR’s based at Delhi, while three will be at Navi Mumbai. It had reduced the utilisation drastically over the last few months as it adjusted to its new ground realities with reduced slots, Flight Duty Time Limitations of the crew and so on. Will the NMIA network be stable? I would assume it would see many more changes in months to come, with primary focus on international connections when NMIA starts international operations.

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