Why in news
- Ministry of Civil Aviation expanded the national Hub & Spoke international flight framework to include Ahmedabad Airport.
What is the Hub & Spoke Framework?
- An aviation transit model where tier-2 regional airports (spokes) aggregate international passengers and route them to a central gateway airport (hub) for onward long-haul flights.
- Administered by the Ministry of Civil Aviation to build domestic mega-hubs and reduce reliance on foreign airport hubs.
Key operational mechanism
- Before: Passengers from tier-2 cities had to clear domestic security, collect luggage, re-check in, and undergo immigration at the primary hub airport.
- After: Passengers clear international check-in, customs, and immigration at the origin spoke airport, receiving single-ticket baggage through-check to final destinations.
Why it matters
- Optimizes passenger processing times and transit congestion at major hub airports such as Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport.
- Strengthens Indian carriers' market share in long-haul international routes.
Key terms
Hub-and-Spoke System
An operational route structure connecting secondary locations (spokes) to a central node (hub) to pool traffic efficiently.
Through-Check-in
Issuance of boarding passes and luggage tags at origin point covering multi-leg journeys across connecting flights.
Prelims facts
- Ahmedabad is the third airport integrated into the international Hub & Spoke framework after Varanasi and Amritsar.
Mains discussion
- Role of hub-and-spoke infrastructure in developing India into a global aviation transit hub.
Source: PIB Press Release
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