New Delhi: India is finalizing its hub-and-spoke policy to fly passengers between smaller cities and the rest of the world through cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. The move comes amid massive orders for wide-body aircraft from Air India and IndiGo; The era of Indian hub airports is coming which is getting ready to shift from domestic-to-international and vice versa; And the largest hubs for international travel to and from India in the Gulf such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha face uncertainty over resuming operations before February 28. Union Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu on Thursday visited Delhi’s IGI airport – India’s busiest airport – to fine-tune the policy and start its implementation in the right manner and was visited by Secretary Sameer Sinha.Sinha is tackling the biggest problem for international as well as domestic travelers – they have to collect their luggage at the port of arrival in India; Clear customs and then check-in again for domestic connecting flights. “The baggage of both inbound and outbound international passengers will be transferred seamlessly through airside operations at the hub airport, eliminating the need for passenger intervention,” the aviation ministry says about the changes under the new hub-and-spoke policy.On the other hand, passengers flying out of India, such as from Lucknow to Delhi to London, can check-in their bags in Lucknow only if both their flights are on the same airline or code share partner carrier of the alliance. Operating Procedure for Domestic to International Transfers: “Under the hub-and-spoke model, passengers arriving from various smaller cities will be consolidated in a coordinated manner and routed through major hub airports like Delhi for onward international connections. At spoke (smaller origin) airports, passengers will be issued two separate boarding passes, clearly marked with ‘D’ (domestic) and ‘I’ (international) indicators,” the aviation ministry said in a statement.It added, “Customs and immigration formalities for outbound passengers will be completed at the first point of exit from the country, which will be Spokane Airport, and passengers on such outbound journeys will not have access to customs declaration facilities during transit.”Operating Procedure for International to Domestic Transfer: “For incoming passengers, customs and immigration processes will take place at the last point of entry into the country, which will again be the spoke airport…. The baggage of both inbound and outbound international passengers will be transferred seamlessly through airside operations at the hub airport, eliminating the need for passenger intervention. “To maintain operational efficiency and regulatory clarity, combination flights will not be allowed, 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 optimum utilization of the already developed infrastructure across the country,” he said.The hub and spoke strategy aims to transform India from a source market for traffic to a “global transit hub” to feed foreign airlines and hubs, allowing Indian airports to capture a larger share of the transfer traffic that is currently routed through foreign hubs.Naidu said: “Currently, about 35% of international passengers traveling from India transit through overseas hubs such as Dubai, London and Singapore. We aim to reverse this trend by developing globally competitive Indian hubs such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chennai.”“For example, Delhi airport stands at a capacity of over 10 crore passengers annually, handles about 50% of the total passenger traffic in the northern region and manages 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 help airlines deploy their aircraft more efficiently for international operations, while contributing to reducing congestion at major airports by decentralizing customs and immigration processes to spoke locations, Naidu said.