The incident took place on 4 September, but the matter came to light today.
Three Italian nationals travelled from Delhi to Munich without undergoing immigration checks. They flew on Lufthansa flight LH-763 on the morning of September 4.
According to media reports, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has issued a show-cause notice to Air India in the matter. The airline has been asked to respond within seven days.
The three passengers had arrived in Delhi from Amritsar on Air India flight AI-1115 at around 12:50 am. About an hour later, at 1:45 am, they boarded the Lufthansa flight to Munich.
The passengers were required to follow the prescribed process for domestic and international travellers. Instead, they boarded the international flight without reaching the immigration checkpoint.
How the passengers bypassed immigration
Air India’s SOP has only two categories of boarding passes. ‘D’ is for domestic passengers and ‘I’ is for international passengers.
According to the ministry, the procedure followed in this case is not provided for under the SOP. On arrival in Delhi, the three passengers should have been identified as international passengers.
They should then have been separated from domestic passengers and sent for immigration. Instead, they were taken from Gate 39 to the international-to-international transfer area.
From there, they reached the departure area and boarded the Lufthansa flight without going through the immigration checkpoint.
The ministry further said that the three passengers were travelling under Air India’s hub-and-spoke system, in which passengers from smaller airports are first brought to a larger airport.
The three passengers had travelled from Amritsar to Delhi. At Amritsar, they were issued ‘D’, or domestic, boarding passes for the Air India domestic flight.
They were also issued boarding passes for their onward Lufthansa flight at Amritsar itself, which was against the rules.
