Major security laps at Delhi airport as 3 Italians skip immigration, fly to Germany
New Delhi: In yet another glaring security failure at Indian airports, three Italian nationals were allowed to skip mandatory immigration clearance at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport and fly to Germany, prompting the Ministry of Civil Aviation to serve a show-cause notice to Air India.
The Ministry said a serious security and immigration-related lapse occurred during hub-and-spoke flight No. AI-1115 from Amritsar to Delhi on the night of September 3-4, 2026.The notice states that three Italian nationals who arrived at IGI Airport at 00:50 hrs on September 4 from Air India flight, travelled onwards from Delhi to Munich by Lufthansa flight No. LH-763 at 01:45 hrs on the same day without mandatory departure immigration clearance.
The Ministry said there was a clear violation of standard operating procedure for Hub and Spoke operations, resulting in foreign nationals departing India without immigration. The Civil Aviation Ministry has given Air India seven days to respond, asking who allowed the passengers to enter the International-to-International transfer area, why Amritsar boarding passes were issued, why the breach surfaced only after departure, and where the designated nodal officer and monitoring team were when the incident occurred.
The Ministry has also sought details about the role of Air India and SATS staff involved in handling and transferring the passengers and why the required matching of domestic and international passengers at Delhi was not completed.
Such repeated security lapses at high-security airports like Delhi raise serious questions over India’s security system and its credibility.
Observers say when immigration, intelligence and airport security fail to detect three foreigners illegally boarding an international flight, it becomes clear how porous and incompetent the Indian security apparatus is. It is in this backdrop that incidents like Pulwama and Pahalgam need to be seen, where without any credible investigation and within minutes of the incidents, New Delhi was quick to blame Pakistan and Kashmiri freedom activists. Such hasty accusations, despite India’s own admitted and documented security failures, prove that these incidents were orchestrated and falsely placed on others to serve the BJP government’s political and electoral interests and to defame the Kashmir freedom struggle.
