New Delhi: Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel daughter has been accused of using her father's clout to convert a scheduled Air India flight into a chartered flight for IPL. Media reports suggest that the IC 7603 Delhi-Coimbatore Air India flight on April 20 was aborted less than 12 hours before its scheduled time of departure.
It was allegedly done so that the aircraft could deployed as a chartered flight for ferrying Praful Patel's daughter Poorna and some IPL players. The flight ferried the IPL guests from Chandigarh to Chennai.
The airline allegedly re-assigned 75 passengers of the Delhi-Coimbatore flight to the next one.
But Air India has denied any wrong-doing with Air India CMD Arvind Jadhav telling CNN-IBN that no passenger flight was aborted to accommodate a chartered flight.
"It was a commercial decision that we took. All airlines make money through charter flights and IPL was another client. We do charters for Army, RBI and several other organisations as well. There's nothing wrong with it,” said Air-India CMD Arvind Jadhav.
Air India also claimed that Poorna Patel was not involved in the charter operation and she did not travel on the flight.
Diverting an aircraft from passenger flight to chartered service is forbidden under the law.
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