Ahmedabad, Sept. 1 -- The Ministry of Civil Aviation launched international Hub-and-Spoke flight operations from Ahmedabad on Tuesday, becoming the third airport in the country after Varanasi and Amritsar to join the government's Hub-and-Spoke system for international passengers.
The event was attended by Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol and Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi.
International travellers would now be able to check-in their bags, immigration and custom clearance at the Ahmedabad airport as their bags would be checked through to their final destination, while at Delhi, the hub
airport passengers would be able to proceed to catch their onward flight to
their international destinations without going through immigration and customs again.
The new operations seek to ease the process of international travel for passengers who used to board domestic flights to Delhi, make separate bookings, clear immigration and customs at the Delhi airport and then check in their baggage and board another domestic flight to their international destination.
Under the new operations, flight AI 1117 will carry Ahmedabad passengers to 22 destinations, mostly in Europe, Southeast Asia and the Middle East, while the evening service AI 1121, which will depart at 8:15 pm, will link Ahmedabad with 17 destinations in North America, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and Europe. Naidu said that nearly 1.6 crore passengers travel from Ahmedabad to Delhi every year to take international flights and that the new operations would ensure that Ahmedabad is well connected to international destinations which would give a boost to the planned Ahmedabad Commonwealth Games 2030 and help bring more tourists to the city.
The new operations are part of the Centre's International Aviation Hub Strategy, unveiled recently, to establish India as a preferred aviation hub by 2030 and a leading aviation hub by 2047. The minister said that the initiative will have a positive impact on textile, pharmaceutical, diamond, gems, engineering,
tourism & export industries in Gujarat.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.