Air India on Friday clarified Poorna Patel, daughter of Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, had nothing to do with its charter flights operation.
Arvind Jadhav, Chairman & Managing Director, Air India, said, “The operation was a commercial decision taken by the competent authority at the regional level, in the best interest of the airline. Air India has not violated any of the rules governing the flight operations by this service. The request for the charter flight was from the owners of Chennai Super Kings franchise. Ms. Poorna Patel was not involved in this charter operation, nor did she travel on this flight.”
Explaining the reason behind the charter flight, Air India says: “Air India mounted the charter from Chandigarh to Chennai on April 20, on a request from India Cements Limited, owners of Chennai Super King franchise. Normal charter rates as applicable were charged for the whole operation including ferry flight from Delhi to Chandigarh and from Chennai to Delhi - apart from the charter flight from Chandigarh to Chennai.
“This charter was a planned operation undertaken after taking into account all factors and standard operating procedures including clearance from defence authorities, regarding the operational viability, without inconvenience to the passengers.
“The passengers were informed in advance of the revised operation. In this operation, Air India optimally cross utilized all its resources of its entities, which is a requirement under the current situation”, the press release said.
“Air India has been operating charter flights on various occasions for defence and private parties, taking into account the operational and commercial considerations. Charter flights are mounted only on receipt of full money, the charges are on the basis of block hours including the ferry legs of the flight”, the press release said.
“Regional offices are expected to generate additional revenue by full utilization of the resources. They are operationally and commercially empowered to do so, keeping the network considerations. Air India has been undertaking charter flights as a part of its normal business. The charters are mounted on a case to case basis and only when capacities are available”, said the press release..
A Times of India report on Friday had said that the Delhi to Coimbatore Air India flight, IC 7603, scheduled to leave at 5.20am on April 20, was aborted less than 12 hours before its departure to allow the aircraft to be deployed as a chartered flight for ferrying Praful Patel's daughter, Poorna Patel, and some IPL players from Chandigarh to Chennai.
The Times report said, technically, the airline combined this flight with another one by putting passengers onto a flight which departed later. Diverting an aircraft from a scheduled passenger flight for charter operations is forbidden under the law if the airline does not have another aircraft to operate the said passenger flight at the scheduled time.
The report said, the Bombardier CRJ 700 aircraft was pulled out of its scheduled flight allegedly on the demand of Poorna, the IPL's hospitality manager. The aircraft (registration number VT-RJB), belonging to Alliance Air, was scheduled to fly the three-hour Delhi-Coimbatore route and return to the capital after leaving Coimbatore at 8.55am the same day.
The report quoting an official said: "But Poorna Patel called the airline on Monday evening and asked for an aircraft to do a chartered flight to Chennai from Chandigarh. So the aircraft was pulled out of the fleet. IPL paid for the chartered flight but the violation here was getting an aircraft scheduled for a passenger flight pulled out at the last moment for a chartered flight."
The Times report said, Coimbatore-bound passengers reached their destination at 11.45am, three hours behind schedule. Passengers booked on Coimbatore-Delhi flight 7604 were put on a Coimbatore-Mumbai-Delhi flight. In all, 75 passengers were re-assigned.
The Bombardier, says the report, did an empty ferry flight to Chandigarh on Tuesday morning. The new flight plan had the chartered flight, LLR-0001, leaving Chandigarh for Chennai at 10.20am. "The departure was postponed to 11.45am as the passengers got delayed. It was airborne at 12.10pm with Poorna Patel and some IPL players," a person in the know said.
