India’s international aviation network is expanding beyond Delhi and Mumbai as airlines increasingly target smaller metropolitan markets. The selection of Ahmedabad for Sun Phu Quoc Airways’ first scheduled Indian route, alongside Vietnam Airlines’ planned Hanoi service, highlights the growing importance of cities outside the traditional gateways.

Indian airports handled 81.13 mn international passengers in 2025, according to the Ministry of Civil Aviation. Air India estimates that nearly 25 mn passengers travel long-haul to and from India annually, with close to 20 mn making connections. Around 17 mn currently transfer through overseas hubs, creating competition over where passengers change planes and which airports capture the associated economic value.

Sun Phu Quoc Airways is scheduled to begin five weekly flights between Phu Quoc and Ahmedabad on December 2, with daily services planned from February 2027. Vietnam Airlines is scheduled to start four weekly Hanoi-Ahmedabad flights on November 3 using Airbus A321 aircraft, taking its India network to 25 weekly round trips across seven routes and destinations. Ahmedabad already has international services from airlines including Vietjet, Thai Airways and Air Arabia.

The wider pattern includes Scoot services to Amritsar, Coimbatore, Tiruchirappalli, Thiruvananthapuram and Visakhapatnam, while Air Arabia connects several Indian cities to its overseas network. Indian airlines are seeking to retain more connecting traffic domestically through initiatives such as Air India’s Easy Connect programme, launched from Varanasi and later extended to Amritsar and Ahmedabad. The service allows passengers to check in to final destinations and complete specified immigration formalities before connecting through Delhi without rechecking baggage.

From Ahmedabad, Air India says two daily Easy Connect flights to Delhi provide onward links to 26 international destinations, with planned expansion to Goa, Guwahati, Kochi, Patna, Vadodara and Visakhapatnam. The results will depend on fares, schedules, aircraft use, passenger demand, airport capacity and transfer reliability. New routes will not automatically succeed, but the expansion indicates that international connectivity is becoming a contest between foreign hubs and India’s own emerging network of domestic gateways.