The Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) has called an urgent meeting of senior officials from the home and civil aviation ministries and other stakeholders on Tuesday evening after three Italian passengers travelled from Amritsar to Delhi and boarded a Lufthansa flight to Munich without completing the mandatory immigration process, officials aware of the matter said on Monday.
According to the notice seen by HT, the meeting, to be chaired by home secretary Govind Mohan, will include the secretary and additional secretary of the civil aviation ministry, Intelligence Bureau director, secretary and additional secretary of the home ministry, Bureau of Immigration (BoI) commissioner, Air India Group head and Delhi airport CEO.
The meeting comes after the Union ministry of civil aviation (MoCA) issued a show-cause notice to Air India on September 12, following concerns raised by the MHA over the airline’s handling of the passengers.
The incident took place on September 4.
“The home ministry has called for a meeting of the stakeholders at 7pm in Kartavya Bhawan (MHA office) to discuss the incident on Tuesday,” an official said.
An Air India spokesperson did not comment on the matter. MoCA also did not offer a comment.
{{/usCountry}}An Air India spokesperson did not comment on the matter. MoCA also did not offer a comment.
{{/usCountry}}However, HT learnt that the airline had not responded to the show-cause notice as of Tuesday evening.
The three passengers had travelled from Amritsar to Delhi to board a Lufthansa flight to Munich. They did not complete immigration formalities at Delhi airport before boarding the international flight, people aware of the matter said. The lapse appears to have occurred at Amritsar airport, they said.
“They were issued two boarding passes at the Amritsar airport for Delhi as well as for the Munich flight operated by Lufthansa. The passengers were supposed to complete their immigration at the Delhi airport but they were directed to the I-to-I (international-to-international) transfer, due to which they were able to board their international flight without completing the mandatory process,” one of the people said.
Amritsar is among the airports where the government has introduced a “hub-and-spoke model”.
Under the model, passengers travelling to international destinations complete immigration formalities at the origin airport before transferring to an international flight at the designated hub. At the hub, passengers are required only to undergo security checks before boarding their onward international flight.
In the present case, however, the passengers were travelling from Amritsar, the spoke, to Delhi, the hub, before taking their international flight to Munich.
Since the two flights were not operating under the applicable hub-and-spoke arrangement, the passengers were required to complete immigration formalities in Delhi before boarding the Lufthansa flight, according to people aware of the matter.