New Delhi: The Indian cricket team’s return post the T20 World Cup victory was marred by controversy as Air India cancelled its scheduled Newark-Delhi flight to accommodate the team’s chartered flight. The move has sparked an inquiry by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
The scheduled Air India flight AI102 from Newark to Delhi was cancelled on Tuesday (July 2). The airline converted the flight into a chartered plane to transport the Indian cricket team from the Caribbean, where they were stranded due to Hurricane Beryl, on the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI’s) request, Business Standard reported. Home minister Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah is the secretary of the BCCI.
The special Air India flight, AIC24WC, took off from Grantley Adams International Airport in Bridgetown and landed in New Delhi on July 4 (Thursday) at 6:20 am IST. “Air India managed to send a flight on a charter basis in close coordination with the BCCI officials to bring the players home. Fortunately, this aircraft could be made available after accommodating the passengers due to fly from Newark to Delhi on another Air India flight,” news agency PTI reported quoting sources.
An Air India executive informed BS that all the passengers from the cancelled flight were accommodated on other flights. However, some passengers took to social media to express their disappointment with Air India’s handling of the situation and claimed that no substitute flight was provided, India Today reported.
The DGCA has taken cognizance of the incident and asked Air India to submit a “factual report” on the cancellation of the scheduled flight and the operation of the chartered flight. Although the DGCA has not issued a formal notice, it has sent an email to Air India requesting an explanation for the incident. BS reported that an Air India source confirmed that the airline will respond to the regulator’s inquiry soon.
According to DGCA regulations introduced in December 2017, airlines are permitted to operate non-scheduled international flights only if they do not interfere with their regular flight schedules. The rules explicitly stipulate that charter flights operated by scheduled airlines must not disrupt their scheduled flight operations, ensuring that routine flights are not compromised for charter services.
