Overview
- Air India opened bookings on Monday, June 9, for a daily Varanasi–Delhi Easy Connect service that starts June 25 as flight AI‑1111 and links to 17 international destinations within a four‑hour window.
- The service lets travellers complete baggage through‑check and immigration at Varanasi so they arrive in Delhi as international transit passengers and avoid redoing check‑in or passport formalities.
- Air India plans additional feeder flights using a dedicated AI11XX numbering series and expects a phased expansion that will add more spoke cities over coming months.
- Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Rajkot are named as the first hubs to anchor the hub‑and‑spoke rollout, which officials say aims to ease terminal crowding and improve long‑haul load factors.
- Passengers should see faster connections and shorter queues if coordination between airlines, airports and government agencies holds up, and observers will watch how quickly the model scales beyond the Varanasi pilot.