Three Italian nationals departed Delhi for Munich without completing immigration formalities, prompting the Ministry of Civil Aviation to issue a show-cause notice to Air India. The incident occurred on September 4, when the passengers arrived in Delhi from Amritsar on Air India flight AI-1115 at 12:50 am and boarded a Lufthansa flight to Munich at 1:45 am, according to sources.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation’s notice, titled 'violation of SOP for hub and spoke operations resulting in three foreign nationals departing India without mandatory immigration clearance,' alleges that the passengers were issued domestic boarding passes for their flight to Delhi and additional passes for their onward Lufthansa flight. This process, the ministry says, violated Air India’s Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), which only permit 'D' for domestic and 'I' for international boarding passes. The passengers were not identified as international travelers upon arrival in Delhi and were instead directed to the international transfer area, bypassing immigration checks.

The ministry has flagged five provisions of Air India’s DI Operations SOP allegedly violated in the incident. These include the issuance of incorrect boarding passes, failure to segregate domestic and international passengers after disembarkation, and the failure of the monitoring team to prevent passengers from entering the international departure process without completing immigration formalities. The lapse was only detected during manual reconciliation after the passengers had already departed.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has asked Air India to explain how passengers with domestic boarding passes accessed the international transfer area, why the reconciliation process failed, and the role of its personnel and SATS staff in handling the passengers. Air India has seven days to respond to the notice, with the ministry warning that failure to do so could result in administrative and regulatory action.

The home ministry has also convened a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the incident, with officials including the home secretary, civil aviation ministry officials, the Intelligence Bureau director, and the Bureau of Immigration commissioner expected to attend. The meeting aims to address the broader implications of the incident and ensure that similar lapses are prevented in the future.

The incident raises questions about the effectiveness of systems designed to prevent passengers from moving from the domestic arrival stream to an international departure without immigration clearance. The hub-and-spoke model, which connects smaller airports to international destinations through major hubs like Delhi, relies on strict adherence to procedures to ensure compliance with immigration laws. The Delhi incident highlights potential gaps in this system.