Centre weighs stronger safeguards for hub-and-spoke flight operations

The Centre is considering stronger procedural as well as technical safeguards for hub-and-spoke flight operations following the immigration lapse involving three Italian nationals who departed India through Delhi without mandatory departure immigration clearance.

Speaking to businessline, a senior Civil Aviation Ministry official indicated that measures under consideration include improvements related to boarding passes. “It is not about taking action, but about setting things right,” the official said.

Lately, industry insiders have been speculating about the possibility of issuing separate boarding passes for domestic and international passengers. Besides, the ministry official referred to “more and stronger measures” being considered to improve safeguards in passenger handling process.

On Monday, sources told businessline that initial information regarding the incident indicated lapses in the ground-handling process. The passengers’ boarding cards carried a “D” marking, sources said, adding that this identified them as domestic passengers on the Amritsar–Delhi leg.

Accordingly, they should have been directed through domestic arrivals and then proceeded to international departures to complete immigration formalities before boarding their onward flight. However, sources said the passengers were allegedly routed through the international-to-international (I2I) transfer process instead of the domestic-to-international (D2I) process, allowing them to bypass departure immigration checks.

The official’s comments come after the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) issued a show-cause notice to Air India on September 12 over what it termed a “serious security and immigration-related lapse”. Meanwhile, personnel of ground-handling agency AISATS involved in guiding passengers were suspended pending investigation, according to sources.

The ground handling agency did not respond to queries. In July, MoCA launched hub-and-spoke international flight operations from Amritsar, making it the second spoke airport under the framework after Varanasi. Under the facility, eligible passengers travelling overseas can complete check-in and departure immigration formalities at Amritsar before taking a connecting flight through Delhi.

Those who have completed immigration at the originating airport can use the I2I transfer facility at Delhi for their onward journey.