NEW DELHI: The civil aviation ministry has issued a show-cause notice to Air India over alleged procedural lapses that allowed three Italian passengers to board a connecting flight from Delhi without completing immigration formalities earlier this month.The notice has been issued to the Air India CEO.The home ministry has also convened a meeting of stakeholders on Tuesday to discuss the incident, sources told news agency PTI.The three passengers flew from Amritsar to Delhi on September 4 before boarding a Lufthansa flight to Munich from Delhi airport. However, they did not complete the required immigration formalities at the airport, sources added.Titled “violation of SOP for hub and spoke operations resulting in three foreign nationals departing India without mandatory immigration clearance,” the show-cause notice issued to Air India last Saturday said the three passengers arrived in Delhi from Amritsar on AI 1115 at 12.50 am on September 4 and subsequently departed for Munich on a codeshare Lufthansa flight at 1.45 am, within an hour of their arrival.Home secretary Govind Mohan will chair a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the incident.The secretary and additional secretary of the civil aviation ministry, Intelligence Bureau director, additional secretary (UT and Foreigners) of the home ministry, Bureau of Immigration commissioner, Air India CEO and Delhi airport CEO are expected to attend the meeting, they added.
What exactly happened?
Amritsar airport is among the airports where Air India operates flights under its ‘Hub-and-Spoke’ model. Under this arrangement, passengers complete immigration formalities at the airport of origin and can then travel to an overseas destination through a designated hub. At the hub airport, where the international flight departs, passengers are required only to undergo security checks before boarding.
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For a passenger travelling from Amritsar via Delhi to an international destination, Amritsar serves as the spoke and Delhi as the hub.In the case of the three Italian passengers, sources said they were issued boarding passes at Amritsar for both their flight to Delhi and the Lufthansa flight to Munich.However, as the two flights were not covered under Air India’s ‘Hub-and-Spoke’ model, the passengers were required to exit through the arrival area at Delhi and complete immigration formalities before taking the Lufthansa flight.After arriving at Delhi airport, they were instead taken to the international transfer area and did not reach the immigration counter. They then boarded the flight to Munich without completing the immigration process, the sources said, as cited by PTI.Air India and Lufthansa have an interline partnership. An interline agreement generally allows passengers to book connecting flights operated by different airlines under a single itinerary.
