3 Italians board Delhi-Munich flight without immigration check, Air India under scanner

The passengers arrived in Delhi from Amritsar on Air India flight AI-1115 at around 12:50 am on September 4.

Nearly an hour later, at about 1:45 am, they boarded Lufthansa flight LH-763 for Munich.

However, they had not gone through the mandatory immigration process before leaving India.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has sought an explanation from Air India and given the airline seven days to respond.

How did the passengers skip immigration?

According to the ministry's notice, the three passengers were travelling under Air India's hub-and-spoke system, in which passengers from smaller airports are flown to a major hub before connecting to international destinations.

The passengers flew from Amritsar to Delhi on a domestic Air India flight and were issued "D" category boarding passes for the domestic sector. They were also issued boarding passes for their onward Lufthansa flight to Munich at Amritsar.

The ministry has questioned why the additional international boarding passes were issued at Amritsar and whether this was consistent with Air India's prescribed Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).

Under the airline's DI Operations SOP, boarding passes are categorised as "D" for domestic passengers and "I" for international passengers.

Passengers routed through international transfer area

The ministry said the three passengers should have been identified as international travellers when they arrived in Delhi and routed separately from domestic passengers towards immigration.

Instead, they were allegedly taken from Gate 39 to the International-to-International Transfer Area.

From there, they reached the departure area and boarded the Munich-bound Lufthansa flight without passing through the immigration checkpoint.

The incident has raised questions over how passengers carrying domestic-category boarding passes were able to access an international transfer route without triggering the required immigration checks.

Five Air India SOP provisions flagged

The ministry has identified five provisions of Air India's Domestic-International Operations SOP that were allegedly breached.

The first concerns the boarding-pass system, which provides for only "D" and "I" categories.

The second requires domestic and international passengers to be segregated after disembarkation. The ministry said this did not happen in the case of the three passengers.

The third provision states that only passengers with "I" category boarding passes should be allowed to access the International-to-International Transfer Desk.

The ministry has questioned how the three passengers holding "D" boarding passes were allowed to enter the area.

The remaining provisions relate to Air India's requirement to maintain a nodal officer and monitoring team at both hub and spoke airports around the clock.

These teams are responsible for ensuring that passengers do not enter the international departure process through an incorrect route without completing mandatory formalities.

The ministry said the monitoring mechanism failed in this case.

Ministry seeks answers from Air India

The show-cause notice seeks a detailed account of how the passengers entered the international transfer area despite holding domestic boarding passes.

Air India has also been asked to explain why the passengers were issued their onward Lufthansa boarding passes at Amritsar and to clarify the role of its employees and SATS personnel involved in their handling and transfer.

The ministry has sought details of the designated nodal officer and monitoring team's presence and actions at the time of the incident.

It has also questioned why the required reconciliation of domestic and international passengers was not completed promptly.

Another key issue is whether the General Declaration, passenger manifest and API-PNR data relating to the three passengers were shared with immigration authorities in time and whether their status was correctly recorded.

Lapse detected during manual reconciliation

According to the ministry's notice, the discrepancy was detected later during manual reconciliation.

This has raised questions about both individual staff actions and the systems in place at Delhi airport to prevent passengers from moving from a domestic arrival stream to an international departure without immigration clearance.

The incident highlights a potentially serious gap in the checks designed to ensure that passengers leaving India on international flights complete all mandatory immigration formalities.

Air India gets seven days to respond

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has asked Air India to explain why action should not be taken against the airline for allegedly failing to follow the prescribed SOP and take adequate precautions.

Air India has seven days from the receipt of the notice to submit its response.

The ministry has warned that failure to respond within the stipulated period could be treated as the airline having no explanation to offer.

Administrative and regulatory action may then be considered based on the available records.

What is the hub-and-spoke model?

The hub-and-spoke model allows passengers from smaller airports to connect to international destinations through a larger hub airport.

For example, a passenger travelling from Amritsar to Munich may fly domestically to Delhi and then connect to an international flight from the capital.

At the hub, however, passengers arriving on domestic flights with onward international bookings must be identified and routed through the prescribed immigration process.

In this case, the three Italian nationals were allegedly routed through the international transfer system and boarded their Munich-bound flight without completing immigration clearance.