India, Dec. 26 -- At 8 am on Christmas Day, an IndiGo flight from Bengaluru touched down at the newly opened Navi Mumbai International Airport to a water cannon salute, formally launching passenger operations after nearly 30 years of bureaucratic delays, environmental challenges and protests by project-affected persons.

Applause broke out inside the aircraft as it rolled to a halt, while residents gathered along nearby highways and access roads to watch and record a milestone that had been decades in the making. Built as a greenfield project through a public-private partnership between the Adani Group and the City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra (Cidco), the airport is designed to handle up to 90 million passengers ...