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"There was never a suggestion of Jet Airways having been warned of ever being barred from operating [in Canada] because of one or two illegal passengers on board our flights," said Chandrasekar Bala, general manager, Canada, Jet Airways.
He was reacting to a recent front-page report in the Toronto Star that said Canadian authorities have warned India's largest private airline that dozens of its passengers from India are arriving at Toronto's Pearson Airport with fake travel documents and that the airline may be barred from operating flights to Canada if its agents 'didn't do a better job detecting passengers travelling on bogus passports.'
He said last week he and Jet's airport manager Steve Bowson met Canadian Border and Customs Agency officials in Ottawa. "Like us, they were also wondering as to who could give that report to the Canadian daily as it was all exaggerated," Bala said.
Immigration authorities had earlier detected some passengers with false travel documents upon their landing at Pearson Airport in Toronto, he continued. For that Jet has been fined $2,400, which the airline is yet to pay the CBCA.
"Such passengers are coming on all the airlines all the time and the Canadian authorities put the blame on the Jet Airways for no reasons at all," he said. "We do check minutely documents of all passengers at various points before they are allowed to board the plane. We do all the security checks at the airports. Despite this, not only Jet but all the airlines operating into Canada bring one or two illegal passengers [inadvertently] invariably."
He asked: "What can we do when after getting on the aircraft a passenger decides to dump his passport into the toilet? These people can always say 'I have landed here without a passport'."
A formal agreement between Jet and the CBCA requires that the airline "will have trained staff posted at all the airports to monitor and check documents before passengers could board the plane in Ottawa," he said.
He said Burn Deborah of the CBCA said after the Ottawa meeting that 'we are pleased by Jet Airways' commitment to adhere to the requirements of the MOU which seeks to ensure that only trained staff performs documents checking duties.'
Canada has two immigration posts -- in Helsinki and New Delhi -- where they have immigration security staff.
"They [CBCA] have already given training to our staff at both places and now only these trained staff check travel documents," said Bala. "If someone resigns, his replacement will not be put on duty to check documents unless he/she gets the training from the Canadian government experts."
He and other Jet Airways officials also met Indian High Commissioner S M Gavai, who suggested that the airline should also write to the Canadian authorities asking why they are being fined when the same thing is happening with other airlines also.