An immigration lapse at Delhi airport has drawn a show-cause notice for Air India from the Civil Aviation Ministry.
Three Italian passengers flew from Amritsar to Delhi on Air India flight AI-1115 on September 4, then boarded a Lufthansa flight to Munich without completing immigration checks.
The ministry described the episode as a ‘serious security and immigration-related lapse’, and the Ministry of Home Affairs has since called a meeting of key stakeholders.
Air India’s hub-and-spoke model allows some passengers to clear immigration at their origin airport, but the three passengers were reportedly not travelling under an eligible connection.
Air India must now formally respond to the notice, explaining the lapse and the corrective measures it plans to take.
They subsequently boarded Lufthansa flight LH-763 from Delhi to Munich without completing mandatory immigration formalities at Delhi airport.
The Civil Aviation Ministry has termed the incident a ‘serious security and immigration-related lapse’ in its notice to the airline.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has called a meeting of key stakeholders to examine how the passengers were able to move into the international transfer area without completing immigration checks.
Under Air India’s hub-and-spoke model, passengers travelling from a spoke airport to an international destination through a hub can sometimes complete immigration formalities at the origin airport, but the three passengers were reportedly not travelling under an eligible Air India connection.
Show-cause notices require airlines to formally respond to regulators explaining the lapse and the corrective steps being taken, with further action possible depending on the response.
Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport handles a significant share of India’s international transfer traffic, making procedural lapses there a particular concern for aviation security.
Airport immigration procedures are designed to ensure that international transfer passengers are properly screened and documented before entering a connecting flight’s international zone.
Air India aircraft, Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Discover more from Times Release
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.