3 Italian passengers fly from Delhi to Munich without immigration checks; Air India gets notice

Dubai: Three Italian nationals managed to fly out of India from Delhi airport without undergoing mandatory immigration clearance after a series of passenger-handling failures allowed them to move from a domestic arrival into the international departure area.

The September 4 incident has prompted India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation to issue a show-cause notice to Air India, giving the airline seven days to explain how the passengers were able to bypass immigration, NDTV reported.

The three travellers began their journey in Amritsar, taking Air India flight AI-1115 to Delhi under the airline’s hub-and-spoke arrangement.

They arrived in Delhi at about 12.50am. Less than an hour later, at around 1.45am, they boarded Lufthansa flight LH-763 to Munich.

But between the two flights, they never went through Indian immigration.

The problem appears to have begun in Amritsar.

The passengers were issued “D”, or domestic, boarding passes for their Air India flight to Delhi. They were also given boarding passes for their onward Lufthansa flight to Munich.

Once they arrived in Delhi, passengers continuing overseas should have been identified and directed through the required immigration process.

Instead, the three Italians were reportedly taken from Gate 39 to the International-to-International Transfer Area.

From there, they reached the international departure area and eventually boarded the Lufthansa flight to Germany without encountering an immigration checkpoint.

The ministry has questioned how passengers travelling on domestic-category boarding passes were permitted to enter the international transfer area.

According to Moneycontrol, the ministry has identified five provisions of Air India’s Domestic-International Operations standard operating procedures that were allegedly not followed.

These include rules governing boarding passes, the segregation of domestic and international passengers and access to the international transfer desk.

The ministry has also questioned whether Air India’s designated nodal officer and round-the-clock monitoring team were performing their required duties when the passengers passed through Delhi.

Officials have sought details about the role of Air India personnel and ground-handling staff involved in transferring the three travellers.

The airline has also been asked whether passenger manifests and other required information were provided to immigration authorities on time and whether the travellers’ status was correctly recorded.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of the incident is that the apparent failure was not detected before the aircraft left India.

According to the ministry’s notice cited by Moneycontrol, the discrepancy was discovered later during manual reconciliation.

The ministry has now asked Air India to explain why regulatory or administrative action should not be taken for failing to follow prescribed procedures and ensure that passengers completed mandatory formalities.

Air India has seven days from receiving the notice to respond.

If it fails to provide an explanation within that period, authorities could proceed on the basis of the records already available, the report said.