By Air India has received a show-cause notice after three passengers skipped mandatory immigration checks at Delhi airport before an international connection.
The three Italian passengers flew Amritsar to Delhi on Air India flight AI-1115 on September 4, then boarded a Lufthansa flight to Munich without clearing immigration.
The Civil Aviation Ministry called it a ‘serious security and immigration-related lapse’, and the Ministry of Home Affairs has convened a meeting of key stakeholders.
Under Air India’s hub-and-spoke model, some passengers can complete immigration at their origin airport, but the three were reportedly not travelling under an eligible connection.
Air India is required to formally respond to the notice, explaining the lapse and its corrective measures.
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.
The incident adds to a series of recent regulatory scrutiny episodes involving Air India, ranging from flight delays to safety and operational reviews.
Indian aviation authorities have periodically tightened protocols at major hub airports following lapses of this kind, particularly involving cross-airline international connections.
Air India aircraft, Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
