Three foreign nationals managed to fly out of India without undergoing mandatory departure immigration clearance after being incorrectly channelled through Delhi airport’s international transfer system, prompting the Civil Aviation Ministry to issue a show-cause notice to Air India over what it has termed a “serious security and immigration-related lapse”.The three Italian nationals had travelled on Air India flight AI1115 from Amritsar to Delhi on the intervening night of September 3 and 4 before boarding Lufthansa flight LH763 for Munich at 1.45 am on September 4, without undergoing the mandatory departure immigration process.Taking a serious view of the breach, the ministry has given Air India seven days to explain why action should not be initiated against it for violating the approved Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) governing hub-and-spoke operations and failing to put in place adequate checks to prevent passengers from bypassing immigration.According to the ministry’s show-cause notice, the three passengers arrived at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport at 12.50 am aboard AI1115 from Amritsar.What followed is now under the government’s scanner. The passengers had been issued boarding passes for the Amritsar-Delhi sector as well as for their onward Lufthansa journey at Amritsar. On reaching Delhi, however, they were allegedly “incorrectly handled” and escorted to the international-to-international, or I-to-I, transfer area.That routing effectively allowed them to proceed towards their Munich flight without completing the mandatory departure immigration formalities. The three Italian nationals have been identified as Surjit Singh, Balwinder Kaur and Gurdev Singh.The ministry said the incident was particularly serious because the approved hub-and-spoke SOP lays down stringent requirements for the segregation and verification of domestic and international passengers and fixes clear responsibilities on airlines.The notice also flags the type of boarding pass issued to the passengers. Air India allegedly issued a third category of boarding pass for their onward Lufthansa journey instead of the prescribed “D” or “I” boarding passes under the hub-and-spoke procedure.The ministry has treated this as a violation of the stipulated procedure and linked it to the breakdown in the security protocol that eventually allowed the passengers to bypass immigration.Hub-and-spoke operations require particularly careful passenger segregation because travellers arriving at a hub can have different onward journeys and immigration requirements. A passenger who has not completed the necessary departure formalities cannot simply be treated as an international transit passenger.In this case, the ministry’s notice indicated that the safeguards meant to maintain that distinction broke down.Air India has now been asked to submit a written explanation along with relevant documents and information within seven days of receiving the September 12 notice.The ministry has also put the airline on notice that failure to respond within the stipulated period would be treated as Air India having no explanation to offer.In that event, the case would be processed on the basis of records already available with the government, including consideration of appropriate administrative and regulatory action.