India Summons Air India CEO Over Immigration Security Breach

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has issued a show-cause notice and formal warning to Air India following a "serious security and immigration-related lapse" that allowed three Italian nationals to leave India without mandatory clearance. On September 4, the passengers flew from Amritsar to Delhi on flight AI-1115. Upon arrival at approximately 12:50 am, passenger-handling failures led to the individuals being incorrectly escorted to the international transfer area, where they boarded a codeshare Lufthansa flight to Munich at 1:45 am without passing through immigration checkpoints.

Government officials determined the breach occurred because the journey did not operate under the approved hub-and-spoke model, which allows immigration at the origin airport. Instead, the passengers were required to clear immigration in Delhi. The ministry identified five violations of standard operating procedures regarding passenger segregation and the issuance of domestic boarding passes, a failure only discovered during later manual reconciliation.

In response, the Ministry of Home Affairs convened an urgent meeting at Kartavya Bhawan chaired by Home Secretary Govind Mohan. The session included senior officials from the Intelligence Bureau and the Bureau of Immigration to examine procedural gaps. Air India CEO Campbell Wilson has been summoned to provide details on the mistakes, and the airline has seven days to respond to the show-cause notice or face administrative and regulatory action.