Government Calls Emergency Meeting Over Immigration Lapse Involving Three Italian Passengers

On the evening of September 15, the Union government convened an emergency sit‑down at Kartavya Bhawan. The agenda? A bewildering breach that let three Italian travellers board an international flight from Delhi to Munich without ever stepping through an immigration counter.

Home Secretary Govind Mohan is chairing the session, flanked by the Civil Aviation Secretary, an Additional Secretary, the Intelligence Bureau director, the Commissioner of Immigration and a host of senior officials from the aviation and border‑security ministries. Even Air India’s chief executive, Campbell Wilson, and the CEO of Delhi Airport have been asked to join – a clear signal that the lapse is being taken seriously.

What went wrong? The three passengers started their journey in Amritsar on an Air India flight, then switched to a Lufthansa service for the Delhi‑Munich leg. Air India and Lufthansa share an interline agreement, meaning a traveller can hold a single ticket that covers both carriers. At Amritsar, airport staff printed boarding passes for both legs, treating the itinerary as if it fit the airline’s “hub‑and‑spoke” model.

In that model, a passenger departing from a smaller “spoke” airport for an overseas destination can clear immigration at the spoke itself, then simply hop through a domestic arrival area at the hub – Delhi, in this case – without another check. It works when the onward flight is also operated by Air India. Here, however, the second leg was Lufthansa‑operated, so the hub‑and‑spoke shortcut didn’t apply.

Instead of being ushered to the domestic arrivals hall, the trio was reportedly guided straight into the international transfer zone, as if they were already cleared. No immigration officer saw them, no passport stamp was made, and they boarded the Lufthansa aircraft bound for Munich.

Preliminary investigators point back to Amritsar. By issuing boarding passes for both sectors without confirming whether the passenger qualified for the hub‑and‑spoke route, the airport set off a chain reaction that culminated in the Delhi breach. The upcoming review will trace every decision – from the initial pass printing to the routing on the tarmac – to pinpoint where the system broke down.

The incident has sparked a flurry of questions about coordination between airlines, airport operators and immigration officials, especially when flights involve multiple carriers. It also comes as the Ministry of Civil Aviation has already served Air India a show‑cause notice over unrelated procedural lapses, and the airline’s response remains pending.

All eyes are now on the meeting’s outcome. Will there be tighter checks on interline ticketing? New protocols for hub‑and‑spoke transfers? Whatever the answer, the episode serves as a stark reminder that even a small procedural slip can have international security implications.