In June 2026, Air India launched one of the most significant structural changes to international air travel from India. The airline announced Easy Connect flights earlier in June 2026 and launched its first Easy Connect flight from Varanasi, operationalising the Government of India’s new hub-and-spoke international transfer framework, which allows passengers to complete immigration and baggage formalities at their origin airport before connecting onward through Delhi (or Mumbai, shortly).
Amritsar commences Easy Connect Services.
Air India has inaugurated ‘Easy Connect’ services from Amritsar, bringing seamless global connectivity to travellers across Punjab. This enables travellers to fly via Delhi as international transit passengers, eliminating the need for repeated processes and significantly reducing travel complexity and unfamiliarity often associated with connecting through foreign airports, including foreign language barriers.
Air India has designated two daily flights from Amritsar to Delhi as ‘Easy Connect’ services:
AI1113: Departs Amritsar at 09:10 AM and arrives in Delhi at 10:40 AM
AI1115: Departs Amritsar at 10:00 PM and arrives in Delhi at 11:20 PM
Together, these flights provide seamless onward connectivity to 27 international destinations within four hours of arrival in Delhi, including destinations in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, West Asia, and Southeast Asia.
The morning Easy Connect service from Amritsar (Flight AI1113) is timed to facilitate convenient onward connections to key European destinations including London Heathrow, Birmingham, Paris, Milan, Copenhagen, Vienna, Amsterdam, Zurich, Frankfurt, and Rome, as well as select destinations in Southeast Asia and West Asia.
The late evening service (Flight AI1115) offers smooth connectivity to destinations in the USA, Canada, and Australia, such as New York (JFK), Newark (New Jersey), San Francisco, Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver, Melbourne, Sydney, and select destinations in Southeast Asia and West Asia such as Singapore, Phuket, Bali, Dubai, among others.
Easy Connect attempts to simplify the complicated transit to travel outside of India from the interior airports inside India
For passengers, however, the real significance lies in what happens before they board. Instead of flying to Delhi as a domestic passenger, collecting baggage, changing terminals where required, checking in again and clearing immigration before boarding an international flight, Easy Connect effectively treats the journey as a single international itinerary from the moment passengers arrive at their hometown airport.
Passengers departing from participating cities will:
- receive boarding passes through to their final destination;
- Check their baggage all the way through;
- complete immigration at their departure airport rather than at Delhi; and
- remain airside during the transfer at the hub airport without re-checking baggage.
What Air India and the Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation aim to achieve is a journey without the need to collect bags, process immigration at the second airport, or repeat security checks. The concept is simple but could be transformative. For Indian travellers who have traditionally preferred connecting through Gulf hubs for smoother transfer experiences, this aims to create a comparable experience entirely within India.
The programme also supports the Government’s broader ambition to develop Indian airports into global connecting hubs, rather than allowing millions of passengers to transit through Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Singapore or Istanbul every year.
According to Air India, nearly 25 million passengers travel long-haul to and from India annually. Around 20 million of them are connecting passengers, and approximately 17 million currently connect through overseas hubs rather than Indian airports. Air India expects to launch inbound operations with I-D connections in about two months.
Expansion will come quickly
While Varanasi is the first city to go live, Air India has already confirmed that the rollout will expand rapidly. The airline says Easy Connect services will progressively be introduced from:
- Ahmedabad
- Kochi
- Goa
Overall, the plan is to establish a network of 44 airports, comprising 4 hubs and 40 spokes. Some of the other Airports expecting a quick rollout include:
- Chennai
- Guwahati
- Hyderabad
- Mumbai
- Patna
- Vadodara
- Visakhapatnam
There are still a few conditions, though. Easy Connect is not yet identical to a conventional international departure.
Passengers must satisfy several operational requirements, including mandatory DigiYatra enrolment for eligible Indian passport holders. Boarding passes need to be uploaded into the DigiYatra application before departure, while web check-in is currently unavailable from the spoke airports. Customs declarations also cannot presently be completed there. These are largely procedural issues and are likely to evolve as the system matures.
Why this matters
Easy Connect is much more than a new flight number. For years, one of the biggest disadvantages Indian airlines faced compared with Gulf carriers was that passengers from Tier II and Tier III cities often found it easier to connect through Dubai, Doha, or Abu Dhabi than through an Indian metro airport. Multiple security checks, baggage uncertainty, immigration queues and tight transfers all made domestic hub connections less attractive.
The new framework removes many of those pain points by allowing passengers to begin their international journey at their home airport, much as travellers do when connecting through mature international hubs elsewhere.
For Air India, this is equally important. As the airline rebuilds its long-haul network, success increasingly depends on feeding more passengers into Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru rather than relying solely on local traffic originating in those cities. Easy Connect gives Air India an important tool to strengthen that strategy while making Indian hubs more competitive against overseas gateways.
The concept will also become more powerful as Air India expands its international network and receives additional long-haul aircraft over the coming years.
Bottomline
Air India’s Easy Connect flights have added Amritsar to the Hub-and-Spoke network, with the inaugural service operating from ATQ yesterday. The programme is moving quickly from a pilot project to a nationwide initiative. If execution matches ambition, Easy Connect could become one of the most significant improvements to international air travel from non-metro India in recent years, alongside the reduction of paperwork and the FTI-TTP launched recently.
What do you think of transiting through Delhi, now that Easy Connect is an Option?
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Not sure how this is different from how it works today. If i fly to US starting any city and via Delhi, i through check in bags and get my boarding passes at the origin itself. As long as PNR is same.
@Saikat, the immigration is also done at the origin point now, and you directly head to the sterile area rather than heading out to go through immigration and security again.