Air India flew empty flight to accommodate Praful Patel’s kin

Air India flew empty flight to accommodate Praful Patel’s kin

National carrier Air India had in 2010 flown a larger aircraft to Goa with empty seats in order to accommodate the then Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel’s kin in the business class, according to an RTI reply.

The loss-making national carrier has been hauled up by the Central Information Commission (CIC) for ‘impropriety and favouritism in aborting the flight at the behest of an influential person or persons in violation of the rules’.

AI had agreed that it deployed the larger Airbus A320 to accommodate Patel’s family members in the business class on their trip to Bangalore-Maldives in April 2010. The information was contained in file noting disclosed by the national carrier in an RTI reply.

The case dates back to April 2010 when the airline had deployed a larger aircraft than the one scheduled just to ensure that Patel’s daughter Avni, her husband Prashant Deshpande and her in-laws could fly business class to Male, Maldives.

After the directives of the CIC, the passenger list shows that the Deshpandes were indeed on board IC-965 on April 25, 2010 for Bangalore-Male and IC-966 from Male to Bangalore on April 28, 2010.

In doing so, Bangalore-Male flight on 25th April resulted in 53 seats (six business class and 47 economy class) going vacant. The same aircraft returned to Bangalore with 57 seats vacant, according to the documents listed.

It had earlier been claimed that since seven business class seats were already booked on the IC-965, flying from Bangalore to Male, Air India switched to bigger aircraft A320, with 20 business class seats. Normally, AI plies the Airbus A 319 aircraft on the route which is smaller with eight business class seats and 114 economy class seats. Under pressure from the Civil Aviation Ministry, Air India switched to the bigger A320, with 20 business class seats and thereby flying with 6 vacant seats.

Admitting the same in the RTI reply the carrier said, “Station Manager, Bangalore had received an e-mail on April 8, 2010 from Harjeet Sawhney, the then Manager (scheduling), Commercial Headquarters, Air India, Mumbai regarding change of equipment on April 25 and 28, 2010.”