Air India launches Easy Connect hub and spoke flights from Varanasi, starting June 25, return remains a question mark

Air India today opened bookings for its first flights under the Government of India’s hub-and-spoke model, introducing these as ‘Easy Connect’ flights, and enabling travellers from cities beyond major hubs to drop baggage and complete immigration at origin airport and travel seamlessly to destinations across the world.

Air India’s new Easy Connect flights will commence from Varanasi on 25 June 2026. As the lead carrier spearheading the implementation of this transformative model, Air India will be driving 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 at scale.

What hub-and-spoke flights mean for travellers

Under the hub-and-spoke model, ‘spoke’ cities such as Varanasi are connected to major ‘hub’ airports like Delhi, from where passengers can seamlessly access Air India’s extensive global network. This coordinated structure allows passengers from non-metro cities to connect efficiently to multiple international destinations through a single hub, with optimised schedules and a smooth transit experience.

At the heart of the model, designed and implemented by Air India in close coordination with industry stakeholders, is a significantly simplified and more intuitive international travel experience:

• Through check-in to final destination: Travellers from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities such as Varanasi can check in at their home airport all the way through to their final international destination, with no need to collect or re-check baggage at the hub airport (e.g. Delhi).
• Immigration at origin: Travellers will complete international immigration formalities at their originating airport, avoiding queues and processing at the hub.
• Seamless international transit via ‘hub’ airport: Passengers will transit through hub airports like Delhi as international travellers, making connections faster and more efficient.

Importantly, travellers also benefit from a familiar and comfortable transit environment within India, avoiding the complexity and unfamiliarity usually associated with transiting through foreign hub airports. Flights will operate from International terminals.

Easy Connect flights from Varanasi to the world

The designated Easy Connect flight from Varanasi to Delhi will operate daily as AI1111. Within four hours of arrival at Delhi, the flight is timed to provide seamless connections to 17 international destinations, including London Heathrow, Frankfurt, Milan, Rome, Zurich, Manila, Singapore, Phuket, Kuala Lumpur, Riyadh, and Dubai, among others.

Subsequent Easy Connect flights with hub-and-spoke operations from other ‘spoke’ airports will be numbered in the ‘AI11XX’ series, creating a distinct network identity for these services.

INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS DEPARTING DELHI WITHIN FOUR HOURS OF AIR INDIA EASY CONNECT FLIGHT’S ARRIVAL:

Domestic passengers can book tickets on AI 11xx coded flights including the first one from Varanasi, which is AI 1111. These are the things one should know before booking,

What this means for your journey:

Domestic:

• Please arrive at least 3 hours before departure.
• Web check-in is not available. Your check-in will be completed at the airport.
• Departure and arrival will be from the international terminal.
• Please keep your boarding pass and passport/photo ID readily available for verification.

International: Onward international connection on Air India flight within 4 hours

• Please arrive at least 3 hours before departure.
• Web check-in is not available.
• Check-in and immigration will be completed at your origin airport.
• Your baggage will be checked through to your final destination.
• Customs declaration is not available at the origin airport.
• Indian nationals must register on the DigiYatra platform and have the app active on their mobile phone. Passengers must upload their boarding pass on DigiYatra app after check-in at the airport.
• Passengers of non-Indian nationalities will be required to proceed directly to document verification at the transfer area at Delhi airport.
• A fresh boarding pass will not be re-issued at Delhi airport, to those passengers who have already been issued a boarding pass for the international sector of their journey at their origin airport.
• Please keep your boarding pass and passport/photo ID readily available for verification during transit at Delhi airport.

Other International: Onward international connection beyond 4 hours

• Please arrive at least 3 hours before departure.
• Web check-in is not available. Your check-in will be completed at the airport.
• Customs and immigration will be completed at the Delhi airport.

Question mark on return

However, the return is a question mark in terms of operations. There are no flights reflecting which are AI 11xx series from Delhi to Varanasi, which would rather imply that the return still remains the same where the passengers have to alight at Delhi, complete the immigration and customs and re-check-in for the domestic leg of the journey. The days of old Air India where the international connectors operated from international terminals and the domestic passengers had “D” printed on their boarding pass seem to be making a comeback.

As the system and passengers both adjust to the scenario, the scheme is likely to progress with streamlined procedures and growth.

Found this article informative? Think of supporting Network Thoughts with Power of 10

Running this website incurs some cost, along with the data sourced for analytics. If you have liked this article, consider paying INR 10 via UPI. The site will continue to be free. This will help with the maintenance, upkeep and funding the research. You can also pay via Debit or Credit card by clicking on this link.

You can support Network Thoughts by ordering Network Thoughts baggage tags and lapel pins !

Follow NetworkThoughts on X (Formerly Twitter),  Bsky, Facebook and YouTube