Air India has selected Varanasi as the first city for its Easy Connect programme, a transfer product designed to simplify international journeys for passengers travelling via Delhi.
While presented as a passenger experience initiative, the launch also reflects a broader strategic objective. As more outbound travellers emerge from Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, Indian airlines are increasingly looking at whether better domestic-to-international connectivity can help them retain traffic that currently flows through overseas hubs.
Air India’s inaugural Easy Connect flight, AI 1111, flew on the 25th of June, 2026, carrying passengers connecting onward from Delhi to nine international destinations including Dubai, Colombo, Jeddah, Riyadh, Kathmandu and Phuket.
Stock image used for representational purposes | Credits: Air India
85% of India’s Travellers Transit Through Overseas Hubs
Beyond the passenger experience benefits, this model is an attempt to change how Indian international traffic flows. For decades, a meaningful share of Indian travellers flying abroad have connected through overseas hubs such as Dubai, Doha, Singapore and Abu Dhabi. Air India estimates that nearly 25 million passengers travel long-haul to and from India annually, of which close to 20 million are connecting travellers. Around 85% of those connecting flyers (or approximately 17 million passengers) currently transit through overseas hubs rather than Indian airports.
These connecting passengers represent a significant part of the market that Air India says it is targeting through its hub-and-spoke strategy. A traveller from Varanasi heading to London, Frankfurt, Riyadh or Dubai can now start the international leg of the journey in Varanasi itself, clear immigration at origin, check baggage through to the final destination, and transit through Delhi as an international connecting passenger. AI1111 has been timed to offer onward connections to 17 international destinations within four hours of arrival at Delhi, including London, Rome, Milan, Frankfurt, Zurich, Dubai, Riyadh and Jeddah.
Air India has confirmed that Easy Connect services will progressively expand to 11 additional cities: Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Chennai, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Kochi, Mumbai, Patna, Vadodara and Visakhapatnam. The first six of these will happen as early as the next six weeks, feeding travellers into the airline’s primary hubs in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. Many of these cities have been selected on the basis of their potential for more steady traffic flows - with VFR, religious and business travellers.
Stock image used for representational purposes | Credits: Air India
Easy Connect Will Shift Airport Burdens
One possible implication of the model is that passenger processing can begin earlier in the network rather than being concentrated at the hub airport. According to Airports Council International (ACI), Delhi has consistently ranked among the world's top 15 busiest airports by passenger traffic, while Mumbai ranks in the top 30 globally.
By allowing passengers to complete international check-in and immigration at their origin airport, the model pushes part of that burden upstream. A passenger from Varanasi, Guwahati, Patna or Amritsar no longer has to treat Delhi as the place where the international journey begins. Delhi becomes the connector, not the processing bottleneck.
In peak periods, that shift can be important. One international passenger processed at Varanasi or Guwahati is one less passenger joining the international check-in and immigration pressure at Delhi during a departure bank. Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru will still remain the main gateways, but the passenger-processing load can begin earlier in the network.
India is also Spending on it’s Wider Airport Infrastructure
Easy Connect also arrives as India is investing heavily in airport capacity beyond its traditional metro gateways. New airports such as Navi Mumbai and Noida International Airport are expected to reshape traffic flows over the next decade, while airports in cities including Guwahati and Amritsar are planning major capacity expansions.
That raises the next question: what are these airports being built to become eventually? Will these airports remain primarily feeders to the metro hubs or eventually develop into international gateways in their own right?
If airports such as Lucknow, Amritsar, Guwahati, Jaipur and Ahmedabad are only treated as spokes, their job is to collect demand and feed it into Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. If outbound demand becomes large and consistent enough, some of them may also start making the case for direct international services of their own. Easy Connect solves today’s connectivity gap, but it does not fully answer tomorrow’s airport strategy.
Easy Connect is therefore not just a smoother transfer product. It is a test of how India wants to organise its next phase of international aviation: through stronger metro hubs, stronger spoke airports, or eventually a mix of both.