Mumbai’s first airfield was at Juhu
Today, Juhu Aerodrome can seem almost easy to overlook: a low-key airfield beside one of Mumbai’s best-known beaches, surrounded by the city’s dense suburban fabric. But its role in the city’s aviation history began in 1928, when the aerodrome was established. The Maharashtra State Gazetteer identifies Juhu as the beginning of civil aviation from Bombay and records that it functioned as the city’s airport until Santacruz was developed. Before the larger airport took over, Juhu handled Bombay’s pioneering civil-aviation traffic. Its setting makes the history especially striking. The airfield that once stood on marshy coastal land is now part of built-up Juhu—yet it has not disappeared.
The flight that brought mail to Juhu
On October 15, 1932, J.R.D. Tata flew a small Puss Moth from Karachi via Ahmedabad and landed at Juhu carrying mail. The flight inaugurated Tata’s regular airmail service and became part of the story of the airline that later became Air India. In the city’s aviation history, this was more than an arrival: it connected Juhu to an emerging regular air service and placed the aerodrome at the centre of Tata’s early aviation venture. The image is unusually vivid—mail arriving at an airfield that was still far removed from the scale and infrastructure associated with a modern international airport.
A runway that could disappear
J.R.D. Tata later recalled the original Juhu airfield as essentially a mud flat. During the monsoon, he said, the runway could disappear beneath the sea. That detail gives the early aerodrome a very different physical character from the Juhu of today. Its coastal location was not only atmospheric; it also imposed practical limits. Juhu’s seaside setting and restricted space prevented expansion to accommodate larger wartime and postwar aircraft. As aircraft requirements grew, the city needed a site with more room. The story of Juhu is therefore not simply that an old airport was replaced, but that the limits of its landscape helped determine Mumbai’s next aviation chapter.
