Air India Launches First Easy Connect Flights From Varanasi Under India's Hub And Spoke Model; Plans Expansion To Tier-2 And Tier-3 Cities

Mumbai, June 9: Air India opened bookings for its new Easy Connect flights starting June 25, changing international travel operations out of India.

The service positions Varanasi as the launchpad for the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s (MoCA) highly anticipated Hub and Spoke model, which will remove the persistent pain point of international transit for passengers travelling out of Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities.

Under the current framework, a traveller flying from a non-metro – or spoke – airport to an overseas destination, via a major domestic hub, faces a disjointed journey.

They are typically forced to collect their bags at the transit airport, re-check them at the international terminal, and stand in long lines for security and immigration clearances during their layover.

The new policy framework fundamentally alters this flow by shifting the bureaucratic and security burden away from congested mega-hubs. Beginning with the Varanasi rollout, passengers will complete international exit formalities – including customs, immigration, and through-check-in – directly at their point of origin.

Luggage will be tagged straight to the final international destination, allowing travellers to transit through hub airports smoothly as international passengers.

Easy Connect flights streamline international travel

The Easy Connect flight from Varanasi to Delhi, operating daily as AI-1111, will depart at 9.50 pm and reach Indira Gandhi International Airport at 11 pm, to maximise connection efficiency.

Within a tight four-hour window of landing in Delhi, passengers will be able to seamlessly connect to 17 international destinations spanning Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.

Subsequent flights integrated into this framework will adopt a dedicated ‘AI11XX’ numbering series, establishing a distinct network identity for Air India's hub-and-spoke feed.

Air India’s group head for governance, risk, compliance and corporate affairs, P. Balaji, said, "The successful implementation of the hub-and-spoke model requires close coordination across airlines, airports, and multiple government agencies. Together, we are building a more efficient, integrated, and globally competitive aviation ecosystem for India."

The structural overhaul is part of a broader, deliberate strategy by the civil aviation ministry to transform India into a global transit powerhouse. By creating an internal, frictionless network, India aims to recapture the massive volume of international traffic that currently flows through traditional foreign stopover hubs like Dubai, Doha, and Singapore.

Beyond passenger comfort, the model is said to provide significant operational upside for airlines. By processing passengers at decentralised spoke locations, major hubs can mitigate terminal crowding. Furthermore, it allows carriers to optimise aircraft utilisation, filling international long-haul widebodies with highly efficient domestic feed.

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Phased rollout of hub-and-spoke operations

To anchor this national strategy, four major airports have been identified to spearhead the first phase based on infrastructure and geographic positioning. This will include Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Rajkot as the hub airports.

According to Air India, it will drive a phased rollout of Easy Connect flights across multiple cities in the months ahead to operationalise seamless international connectivity from India’s Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities.

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