Civil Aviation Minister K. Rammohan Naidu on Thursday (June 25, 2026) launched a facility for transit passengers to complete immigration formalities at their origin airport so that they can bypass the process at transit airports before proceeding to their final destination.

The first service under the model, operated by Air India, was launched from Varanasi on Thursday (June 25).

“All the SOPs [standard operating procedures] and systems are now finalised; all stakeholders have been brought together. First operation starts from Varanasi today. In the next six weeks, we will see six new destinations added to this model,” the Minister told the press.

Air India chief executive officer (CEO) Campbell Wilson said the facility would subsequently be rolled out at Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Vadodara, Kochi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Visakhapatnam.

Mr. Naidu claimed that this facility would put Indian airports on par with some of the leading hubs such as Singapore and Dubai.

“This is a very important day for Indian civil aviation because there are high expectations for hub-and-spoke operations in the country. Some are going to Dubai, some to Singapore and other places, and from there they have transit connectivity to the rest of the world. We have the capacity, and we have the infrastructure, we have everything ready,” he said.