India orders security overhaul after Italians bypass immigration and fly out of Delhi

India’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) convened an emergency meeting on Tuesday evening after three Italian nationals managed to transit from Amritsar to Delhi and board a Lufthansa-operated flight to Munich on 4 September without passing through departure-immigration at Indira Gandhi International Airport. According to officials, the passengers were given through-check boarding passes under the domestic hub-and-spoke model even though the two flights were not part of an approved international-transfer pairing. On arrival in Delhi they were routed to the international-to-international corridor, cleared security, and boarded the onward flight within an hour—exposing a gap in both airport process design and airline oversight. The civil-aviation ministry has issued a show-cause notice to Air India asking why standard operating procedures were ignored. The home secretary has summoned senior executives of Air India, Delhi International Airport Ltd, the Bureau of Immigration, and the Intelligence Bureau to present corrective plans. Sources say the review will examine whether immigration counters at “spoke” airports such as Amritsar need to be upgraded, and whether the current hub-and-spoke exemptions should be suspended. Corporate travel managers should expect tighter document checks and longer minimum-connection times on domestic-to-international transfers while new protocols are tested. Airlines have been warned that additional penalties—including temporary suspension of transfer privileges—may follow if lapses recur. Multinationals moving staff through secondary Indian cities may need to re-route itineraries or allow extra transit time at Delhi and Mumbai hubs in the coming weeks. The incident has reignited debate over India’s plan to introduce a Trusted-Traveller e-gate programme for foreign nationals in 2027. Security experts argue that automated clearance cannot proceed until manual controls prove fail-safe. For now, companies should monitor airline advisories and brief travelling employees to expect ad-hoc secondary inspections as authorities plug gaps exposed by the breach.