Come April 21st, all flights into and out of Mumbai arrive and depart from Terminal 2, only a little over a month after reopening both terminals. Mumbai Airport will operate from a single terminal. This is the impact of the Second wave of Covid 19 cases affecting Mumbai and the rest of India.
As domestic traffic was rising, Mumbai Airport re-opened Terminal 1 on 10th March 2021 to cater to the rising demand envisaging the trend as the path to recovery. The situation changes in just a couple of weeks resulting in the plan to close Terminal 1 once again.
With effect from April 21st, all passenger flights on the Domestic and International routes will move operations to Terminal 2.
This decision will impact low-cost and regional airlines that only recently moved their operations to T1. Having all airlines operating out of one Terminal will create more passenger movement in the airport with difficulty to maintain social distancing.
The second wave across India has dashed the airlines’ hopes of a full domestic recovery into the summer as India crosses 200,000 cases daily. The passenger numbers are already dropping over the last few weeks and it is likely to continue until the second wave of Covid 19 can be controlled.
Maharashtra state has reported the highest number of cases in the country of upto over 60,000 in a day, with numbers in Mumbai running into around 9000 daily. A partial lockdown has been imposed in the city and this impacts domestic passenger numbers, who will avoid travelling into and via Mumbai unless absolutely necessary.
T1 is likely to remain shut until International flights start normal operations and domestic traffic picks up to normal schedules. Until then it will be Terminal 2 Mumbai Airport only.
