Air India denies cancelling flight for IPL guests

Mumbai, Apr 23: Air India has rubbished the reports claiming that the state-run carrier had cancelled a flight so that the airplane can be deployed as a chartered flight for ferrying IPL guests.

Earlier, reports emerged that AI had aborted a Delhi to Coimbatore flight, scheduled to take off on Apr 20, so that it can be used as a chartered flight for ferrying civil aviation minister Praful Patel's daughter, Poorna Patel, and some IPL players from Chandigarh to Chennai.

According to Times of India report, the flight IC 7603, which was scheduled to leave at 5:20 am, was cancelled less than 12 hours before its departure.

Denying these reports, Air India on Friday, Apr 23 said that flight was chartered by IPL management and that all airlines make money through chartered flights.

The new twist in the ongoing IPL controversy comes at the time when the Aviation minister's daughter's name Poorna Patel came up in connection with the row.

It has been alleged that Praful Patel's secretary had fowarded an e-mail to Shashi Tharoor with the details on the bidding for new IPL teams. Poorna Patel is said to have received this mail first from IPL CEO Sundar Raman

Poorna Patel has been working with the Indian Premier League (IPL) since its launch in 2008 in the marketing and hospitality department.

OneIndia News