A new airport has arrived

I have been fascinated with planes, civil aviation in particular for as long as I can remember. I faintly remember my father’s newspaper cutouts of aircraft like the Airbus 300, stuck on our apartment door like a collage when I was 4 or 5. It was around the age of six that we moved to my parents’ own apartment in this brand-new town, and that fascination with aircraft only got obsessive. Our house lies on the final approach for the longer runway, of the busiest airport in the country, and so since the late 80s, I’ve run to the window to look up my parents’ bedroom window to see and hear aircraft spool up the engines, to counter the drag as the flaps are fully extended and landing gear lowered. Each aircraft has a distinct sound: a haunting scream (or yawn) as these actions are orchestrated with engines in some cases sounding they’re suffering from nasal congestion, others monstrous. I have 40 years of seeing and hearing these - the last of the Dakotas, Boeing 737-200s, the older-humpy 747s, Lockheed Tristars, MD11s, Airbus 300s, 310s, and many more that followed.

Fast-forward to Christmas day 2025 - a new airport goes into service, the second for Bombay/Mumbai - the second in nearly a 100 years. This one is larger, spacious, accommodating two parallel runways. While the runways aren’t aligned to my liking, robbing me unfairly of more air traffic overhead, it is however convenient - much closer to us. The older airport would take anywhere between an hour to two and a half hours to reach in traffic. This meant added hours to travel, sometimes late in the evenings - anxiety, uncertainty and fatigue. I can cycle to the new one in 25-35 minutes, or drive there in 15 or 20. This has me very happy, because I can have a evening tea at home or work, take a 20-30 minute cab to the airport at the last minute, fly to my hometown for dinner. The airport on the other end is also some 15 minutes away from my maternal home.