India, Dec. 25 -- The Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) successfully commenced operations on Thursday, with an IndiGo Airbus A320 from Bengaluru making the first landing on the tarmac at 8 am. The flight departed for Hyderabad at 8.40 am.

With the new airport, Mumbai joined the ranks of global aviation hubs like London, New York, Moscow, Tokyo, and Shanghai, each having multiple airports to meet rising demand, Navi Mumbai Airport said.

On December 25, the airport handled a total of 15 departure flights to various destinations spanning the country, fueling its first phase of commercial flight operations.

From December 26 onwards, the airport will be operating around 25 scheduled departure flights on a daily basis which will furth...