Air India had apparently deployed a larger aircraft to accommodate the family of Praful Patel, the then civil aviation minister, on its Bangalore-Maldives trip in April 2010, according to file reports disclosed by the carrier.
It had earlier been claimed since the seven business class seats were already booked on the IC-965 flying from Bangalore to Male, Air India had switched to a bigger aircraft, an A320 with 20 business class seats, to accommodate seven members of the Deshpande family — the in-laws of Patel's daughter Avni.
The passenger list disclosed after the directive of the Central Information Commission shows the Deshpandes were on board IC-965 on April 25, 2010 for Bangalore-Male and IC-966 from Male to Bangalore on April 28, 2010.
According to the list, seven family members — Congress leader R V Deshpande, Radha Deshpande, Prasad Deshpande, Meghna Deshpande, Dhruv, Avni and her husband Prashant Deshpande — travelled on the flights. According to the disclosure, instructions were issued via email from the Mumbai headquarters to change the “equipment” of the Bangalore-Male flight on April 25 and the Male-Bangalore flight on April 28 — from a smaller Airbus A319 to larger A320. Air India usually plies Airbus A319 on the route. This is a small aircraft, with eight business class seats and 114 economy class seats.
The order said, “Due to heavy demand in J Class on Bangalore-Male on April 25, 2010 and Male-Bangalore on April 28, 2010, the J Class capacity is increased on the above two dates by rotation change in equipment.” The order for the change was issued from senior Air India officials, as the copy for the decision was sent to Aben Lal, now general manager (commercial) with a note saying, “This is in reference to your telecon with F J Vaz (now executive director (commercial)). The reply said, “The station manager, Bangalore, had received an e-mail on April 8, 2010, from Harjeet Sawhney, then manager (scheduling), commercial headquarters, Air India, Mumbai, regarding change of equipment on April 25 and 28, 2010,” the carrier said in its reply to the RTI.
With the change in the aircraft, the carrier had to fly with six vacant seats in the business class and 47 in the economy class from Bangalore to Male on IC-965, according to the passenger list revealed under the RTI Act to activist Subhash Agrawal. On April 28, eight business class seats and 52 economy seats were vacant on Air India flight IC-966 from Male to Bangalore.
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The carrier, which was hesitant in disclosing the passenger details even after the orders of the Central Information Commissioner, was issued a show cause notice for non-compliance.
Air India said, “Keeping in view the spirit of the RTI Act, 2005, we are complying with the orders of the information commissioner (Sushma Singh) and providing the information to the appellant. It is humbly requested that this may please not be treated as a precedent, since the company, keeping in view its commercial interest, follows the practice of not-disclosing travel particulars of its valued passengers, which are personal to them, to any third party.”