NEW DELHI: Indians will soon be able to seamlessly transit through hubs in their own country and on Indian carriers like Air India group, IndiGo and Akasa, instead of first flying to nearby hubs abroad like Dubai or Doha to take connecting flights to rest of the world on home airlines there. With required changes in immigration, security and customs, govt has started implementing the hub-and-spoke model in India. This could be a tectonic shift in how Indians globetrot and how the huge Indian diaspora travels home. Air India estimates about 2.5 crore passengers travel long-haul to and from India annually, of which almost to 2 crore are connecting travellers. As many as 1.7 crore – 85% – of these connecting flyers do so via hubs abroad. Shifting this business to India once our biggest airports have the hub infra and our airlines like AI group, IndiGo and Akasa have a global network.Accordingly, Air India on Thursday started its “easy connect” flights for seamless transfers from Varanasi. The Tata group airline will start these easy connect flights from 10 additional cities: Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Chennai, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kochi, Mumbai, Patna, Vadodara and Visakhapatnam.AI’s first “easy connect” flight, AI1111, took off from Varanasi for Delhi Thursday with connecting passengers flying on to international destinations like Dubai, Colombo, Jeddah, Riyadh, Kathmandu and Phuket from IGI Airport.Union aviation minister Ram Mohan Naidu said: “… Our new hub-and-spoke model paves the way for a monumental shift in how our citizens travel – where regardless of the city one lives in India, one can begin their international journey from their home city and travel across the globe with ease and confidence, on India’s own wings.”AI outgoing CEO Campbell Wilson said: “India is a major force in global aviation, and yet, for decades a meaningful share of Indian travellers flying abroad have routed their journeys through overseas transit points – often at the cost of comfort and convenience. Air India’s ‘Easy Connect’ flights is a response to that reality, and we are grateful to the Government of India for its vision and support in enabling this framework.”Wilson added: “In today’s India, a family in Varanasi, Amritsar, or Vishakhapatnam should not have to navigate unfamiliar transit environments to reach the world. They should be able to begin their international journey from their home city, on their own soil, feeling confident, comfortable, and proud as they connect seamlessly to global destinations.”
