India’s Civil Aviation Ministry on 28 July launched its second hub-and-spoke airport experiment at Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport, Amritsar. Under the model, passengers flying Amritsar-Delhi-overseas can complete immigration, customs and baggage drop in Amritsar, then connect at Delhi without re-checking bags or clearing formalities again. The change eliminates the dreaded terminal switch at Indira Gandhi International Airport and could slash total journey times by two hours or more. Government data show roughly 150,000 passengers a year currently travel by road or rail from Punjab to Delhi for long-haul flights; officials expect at least half to shift to the new service within a year. Airlines also benefit: IndiGo and Air India can sell through-tickets from Amritsar to London or Toronto, filling domestic legs and improving international load-factors. Freight forwarders foresee a similar uplift, because export cargo can clear customs closer to source factories in Punjab’s textile belt. The ministry will monitor dwell-time KPIs before rolling the model out to 40 additional “spoke” airports, creating four major hubs nationwide. For business travellers, the pilot promises smoother point-to-point itineraries and could spark new corporate interest in tier-2 cities.
Source: The Economic Times
