How India plans to do a Dubai or Doha in Delhi: The plan for hub-and-spoke desi airports kicks of | India News
New Delhi: India is finalizing the hub-and-spoke policy of flying passengers between smaller cities and the rest of the world through hubs like Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. The move comes amid huge orders for wide body aircraft from Air India and IndiGo; Indian hub airports are coming of age that are gearing up for domestic-to-international transfers and vice-versa; And the biggest hubs for international travel to and from India in the Gulf, such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha, face uncertainty about resuming operations before February 28. Union Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu visited and Secretary Sameer Sinha on Thursday visited the upcoming hub at Delhi’s IGI Airport – India’s busiest airport – to fine-tune the policy and start its implementation properly.Sinha tackles the biggest pain point for international to domestic passengers – having to collect their luggage at the port of arrival in India; Clear customs and then check-in again for domestic connecting flights. “Baggage for both inbound and outbound international passengers will be transferred seamlessly through airside operations at hub airports eliminating the need for passenger intervention,” the aviation ministry said about the changes under the new hub-and-spoke policy.Passengers flying outside India, say Lucknow to Delhi to London, on the other hand, can check-in their bags in Lucknow if both their flights are on the same airline or alliance codeshare partner carrier. Operating Procedure for Domestic to International Transfer: “Under the hub-and-spoke model, passengers arriving from various smaller cities will be brought together in a coordinated manner and routed through major hub airports like Delhi for onward international connections. At spoke (small core) airports, passengers will be issued two separate boarding passes, clearly marked with ‘D’ (Domestic) and ‘D’ (Domestic), the ministry said in a statement.“Customs and immigration formalities for outbound passengers shall be completed at the first point of departure from the country, which shall be the Spokane airport, and passengers on such outbound journeys shall not have access to customs declaration facilities during transit,” it said.Operating Procedure for International to Domestic Transfers: “For inbound passengers, customs and immigration processes will take place at the final point of entry into the country, which will again be Spokane Airport…. Baggage will be transferred for both inbound and outbound international passengers through airside operations at hub airports, eliminating the need for passenger intervention. To maintain operational efficiency and regulatory clarity, combination flights will not be permitted, and separate aircraft will be deployed for domestic and international segments of hub-and-spoke operations,” it said.Naidu said India aims to enable seamless connectivity between Tier-II and Tier-III airports and international destinations. “While passengers will benefit from reduced travel time, there will also be optimal use of infrastructure already in place across the country,” he said.The hub and spoke strategy aims to transform India from a source market for foreign airlines and traffic to feed hubs to a “global transit hub”, thereby allowing Indian airports to capture a significant portion of the transfer traffic currently routed through foreign hubs.Naidu said: “Currently, about 35% of international passengers traveling from India transit through foreign hubs like Dubai, London and Singapore. We aim to reverse this trend by developing globally competitive Indian hubs like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chennai.”“Delhi airport (for example) has a capacity of over 10 crore passengers annually, handles about 50% of the total passenger traffic in the northern region and handles about 50,000 daily transfers, thereby positioning itself as a natural hub airport,” the minister said.The implementation of this hub-and-spoke model will “enable airlines to deploy their aircraft more efficiently for international operations, while decentralizing customs and immigration processes and contributing to reducing congestion at major airports,” Naidu said.
