'Silver, Gold, Purple': Jeet Adani Lays Out NMIA's Lounge Plan To Restore Business-Class Experience

As Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) readies for its scheduled opening on Dec. 25, Adani Airports Director Jeet Adani said the lounges are being designed to solve what he calls the industry’s “biggest challenge” right now: overcrowding and a loss of differentiation as card-based access expands.

"The whole lounge industry is going through a phase that because of the increase in card usage there’s no differentiation for passengers," Adani said in an interview with NDTV Profit. "You would be a business class customer sitting in a lounge where all card people have come in and you don’t have an experience."

To counter that, he said NMIA will differentiate lounges across the airport with three tiers — silver, gold and purple categories that is backed by "separate access controls."

“People in business go to gold. People in first class go to purple. People using a free card to come in… you will get the basic services," he said, describing Silver as "a very nice place to sit, chill, get good Wi-Fi, watch a movie, whatever… but that’s the basic amount."

The Purple tier, he suggested, will be positioned as a top-end experience: “If you go to a purple, you can get a cocktail. You can get a Michelin star meal… there’s no buffet, everything is restaurant style." The idea, he added, is “differentiating based on experience and… pricing."

Jeet Adani also spoke about food affordability at airports, citing his own experience at Mumbai airport. “Food court is a place where you normally go to get an affordable bite to eat,” he said, but recalled seeing a vada pav priced at "430 rupees… or could have been 530."

“I was appalled to see that—boss how can the vada here for Rs 430, I buy it outside for 40 rupees," he said. That sticker shock, he added, pushed NMIA to rethink its retail model. "We’ve cut all the middlemen and directly gone down to the chef," aiming to price popular items "not at Rs 40 of a street hawker but at least at a decent enough price of Rs 80–100 where people don’t feel like they’re being gouged."

Together, the lounge segmentation and the food strategy form NMIA’s larger pitch: premium experiences that feel truly premium and everyday choices that don’t feel like passengers are paying a “flying tax” just to eat or sit comfortably.

The Adani Group, through its airport arm Adani Airport Holdings Ltd (AAHL), is India's largest private airport infrastructure operator. It controls a significant share of India's air traffic, accounting for roughly 23% of passenger movements and about 33% of cargo traffic nationwide.

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