India’s aviation sector has taken a major leap forward with the launch of the country’s first Hub-and-Spoke international flight operations from Varanasi. Air India inaugurated the landmark ‘Easy Connect’ service on June 25, marking the beginning of a new era in seamless international travel.
Under the innovative Hub-and-Spoke model, passengers can now complete check-in, immigration, and customs formalities at their home airport before boarding a domestic flight to a major Indian hub such as Delhi, Mumbai, or Bengaluru. From there, they can directly board their international flight without undergoing immigration or customs checks again.
The inaugural Easy Connect flight, AI1111, departed from Varanasi’s Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport, carrying international passengers connecting onward to destinations including Dubai, Colombo, Jeddah, Riyadh, Kathmandu, and Phuket via Delhi.
Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu inaugurated the service, describing it as a transformative step towards making air travel more accessible, efficient, and globally competitive.
The union minister said that the initiative will allow travellers from Tier-II and Tier-III cities to begin their international journeys from their hometowns with greater convenience.
The new model is expected to reduce travel time, improve passenger experience, optimise airline operations, and ease congestion at major hub airports. It will also help utilise infrastructure at regional international airports while generating economic opportunities and employment.
Following the successful launch from Varanasi, the govt plans a phased rollout of services from several cities, bringing the world closer to millions of Indian travellers.
Over the next few months, Air India aims to introduce ‘Easy Connect’ services from several other Indian cities progressively, including Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Chennai, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kochi, Mumbai, Patna, Vadodara, and Visakhapatnam, thus fundamentally changing the way Indiantravellers access destinations around the world.
Nearly 25 million passengers travel long-haul to and from India annually, of which close to 20 million are connecting travellers – and around 85% (approximately 17 million) of whom currently transit through overseas hubs rather than Indian airports.
