Air India on Tuesday launched its Easy Connect services from Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport, Amritsar, expanding the central government’s hub-and-spoke aviation model and bringing hassle-free international connectivity closer to travellers across Punjab.
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The morning Easy Connect flight is timed to facilitate convenient onward travel to major European destinations, including London Heathrow, Birmingham, Paris, Milan, Copenhagen, Vienna, Amsterdam, Zurich, Frankfurt and Rome, besides selected destinations in Southeast Asia and West Asia. The late-evening service offers smooth connections to destinations such as New York (JFK), Newark, San Francisco, Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver, Melbourne, Sydney, Singapore, Phuket, Bali and Dubai.
Air India announced that it will become the first Indian airline to implement the ministry of civil aviation’s standard operating procedure for inbound hub-and-spoke operations. Under the new arrangement, international passengers arriving in Delhi will be able to transfer seamlessly onto domestic flights bound for Amritsar. The airline said the inbound Easy Connect model is expected to be introduced within the next two months.
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Punjab has now been connected with 27 global destinations across North America, the UK, Europe and Australia under the hub-and-spoke model.
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Inaugurating the service virtually, Union civil aviation minister Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu said statistics show that approximately 1,50,000 passengers travel from Amritsar to Delhi every year to catch international flights. Similarly, about 150,000 passengers arrive in Delhi from abroad and then travel to Amritsar. He said the city will become the international gateway for North India. Major catchment areas, including Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh will connect through Amritsar. He said that of the approximately 30 million Indians living abroad, nearly 10 million are Punjabi and as air connectivity increases, Amritsar’s economy will directly benefit.
Under the Easy Connect programme, passengers travelling abroad from Amritsar can now complete through check-in to their final international destination, clear immigration formalities at Amritsar airport itself, and enjoy seamless transfers through Delhi without the need to re-check baggage or change terminals. The initiative allows passengers to transit through an Indian hub instead of foreign airports, reducing travel complexity and eliminating repeated procedures as well as challenges such as navigating unfamiliar airports and language barriers.
Air India has designated two daily Amritsar-Delhi flights as ‘Easy Connect’ services. Flight AI1113 departs Amritsar at 9.10am and arrives in Delhi at 10.40am, while Flight AI1115 departs at 10pm and reaches Delhi at 11.20pm. These flights provide onward connectivity within four hours to 27 international destinations across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, West Asia and Southeast Asia.
P Balaji, group head (governance, risk, compliance and corporate affairs), Air India, said Punjab has one of the largest globally connected Indian communities, particularly in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia. He noted that international travellers from the state have often had to navigate multiple airports, repeated security checks and lengthy transit procedures. The Easy Connect service, he said, enables passengers to begin their overseas journeys directly from Amritsar with greater convenience while supporting the government’s vision of making India a major global aviation hub.
