 "Indian captain Rohit Sharma (right) and Suryakumar Yadav pose with the ICC Men’s T20 Cricket World Cup 2024 trophy onboard the Air India flight to Delhi photo: pti")
The T20 World Cup-winning Indian team has finally departed for New Delhi on an Air India (A-I) chartered flight on Wednesday after being stranded in the Caribbean islands for the past three days due to Hurricane Beryl.
There is a catch.
A-I cancelled its scheduled Newark-Delhi flight on Tuesday and converted it to a chartered flight to ferry the Indian cricket team on the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI’s) request.
The special Air India flight AIC24WC (Air India Champions 24 World Cup) took off around 4.50 am local time from the Grantley Adams International Airport in Bridgetown and will land in New Delhi on Thursday at 6.20 am IST.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has asked A-I to submit a "factual report" on the incident, a senior official of the regulator told Business Standard.
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As per DGCA rules issued in December 2017, a carrier can operate a non-scheduled international flight only if it is in no way affecting its scheduled flight operations.
“For operation of charter flights by scheduled operators, there shall be no disruption to their scheduled flights,” the rules stated.
A-I did not respond to the newspaper's request for a statement on the issue.
The DGCA has not issued a formal notice to the airline but has asked it, over an email, to explain the incident. The A-I executive said a reply will soon be sent to the regulator.
The A-I executive said all passengers of the Newark-Delhi flight were accommodated on other flights of the airline and its partner airlines.
"No passenger of the Newark-Delhi flight is stranded in the US due to this cancellation," the executive said.
The B777 aircraft operated its scheduled Delhi-Newark leg and landed at the Newark airport at 8.45 am (local time) on Tuesday.
However, the next leg, Newark-Delhi, was cancelled, and the plane was sent to Argyle airport in Kingstown, to pick up the Indian cricket team.
The Indian team will be felicitated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi within hours of returning to the country. Plans are also afoot to have a roadshow in Mumbai to honour the team that won an ICC title after 11 years.
(With inputs from agencies)
(With inputs from agencies)
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