A show-cause notice has been issued to Air India following an immigration lapse involving three passengers at Delhi airport.
The 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.
The Civil Aviation Ministry termed the incident a ‘serious security and immigration-related lapse’, prompting a stakeholder meeting called by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Air India’s hub-and-spoke model allows some passengers to clear immigration at their origin airport, but the three were reportedly not travelling under an eligible connection.
The airline is required to formally respond to the notice, outlining the lapse and its planned corrective steps.
Indian aviation authorities have periodically tightened protocols at major hub airports following lapses of this kind, particularly involving cross-airline international connections.
The three passengers, identified as Surjit Singh, Balwinder Kaur and Gurdev Singh, had flown from Amritsar to Delhi on Air India flight AI-1115 on September 4.
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.
Air India aircraft, Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
