Air India to soon start inbound Hub and Spoke flights to Amritsar

NEW DELHI: Air India plans to start inbound international flights to Amritsar under the Hub and Spoke model in the next two months, whereby passengers can complete their immigration process and collect baggage at Amritsar.

Currently, inbound international passengers are required to complete their immigration process as well as collect their baggage at the first port of entry in India before taking the next flight for their final domestic destination.

This requirement will be done away with for Amritsar under the Hub and Spoke model, enabling inbound passengers to complete immigration and collect baggage at their final destination Amritsar.

On Tuesday, Air India said it expects to start inbound flights under the model in the next two months.

Under the model that seeks to provide seamless international air connectivity as well as boost India's efforts to become a global transit hub, outbound or domestic flights connecting to international destinations were launched on June 25 from Varanasi. On Tuesday, such flights commenced from Amritsar.

These flights, also called 'Easy Connect' services, have been started by Air India.

Air India said it would be the first Indian carrier to implement the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for inbound Hub and Spoke model operations.

This would enable seamless international-to-domestic transfers via Delhi for passengers travelling onwards to Amritsar.

"The inbound 'Easy Connect' model is expected to be introduced from Amritsar within the next two months," the airline said in a release.

The incoming international passengers under the Hub and Spoke model flights would have to change the aircraft at Delhi to fly to Amritsar, and the flights will only have these passengers, an official said.

Presently, Air India Group -- Air India and Air India Express -- operates around 900 weekly flights. Of them, around 500 weekly services are operated by Air India.

At a function at the Amritsar airport to mark the launch of Hub and Spoke model flights on Tuesday, Civil Aviation Secretary Samir Kumar Sinha said 4 hub and 40 spoke airports would be developed under this model.

Nearly 25 million passengers travel long-haul to and from India annually, of which close to 20 million are connecting travellers. Around 85 per cent or approximately 17 million of them currently transit through overseas hubs rather than Indian airports, according to Air India.

In the coming weeks, Air India will begin outbound 'Easy Connect' flights from Ahmedabad, Goa, Kochi and other Indian cities.