Air India cancelled a Delhi-bound New York flight on Tuesday, July 2, which was diverted to pick up the Rohit Sharma-led T20 Indian Cricket team from Barbados. An airline official told LiveMint that passengers who were scheduled to travel via the NY-Delhi commercial flight were allocated to a separate flight today and had been informed of the cancellation status beforehand.
An Air India passenger complained about a last-minute flight cancellation and claimed the flight was cancelled to pick up the T20 World Cup-winning Indian cricket team from Barbados. The flyer Ajay Awtaney took to microblogging platform ‘X’ on Wednesday, July 3, posting a screenshot of his cancelled Delhi-bound flight ticket from New York.
Awtaney claimed that the commercial flight was cancelled for ‘this charter’. He referred to the special chartered flight that was arranged for the Indian cricket team stranded in Barbados after lifting the T20 World Cup trophy for 2024.
Jay Shah, Secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), arranged the chartered flight for Rohit Sharma's T20 champions to depart Barbados. Media professionals who covered the T20 event also joined the cricketers on the flight to return to Delhi. The special flight will land in Delhi on Thursday, July 4.
News agency PTI reported that the T20 World Cup-winning Indian men's cricket team departed for Delhi aboard the charter flight from the Grantley Adams International Airport on Wednesday after being stranded there for three days due to Category 4 Hurricane Beryl. The Air India special charter flight AIC24WC – Air India Champions 24 World Cup -- took off around 4:50 am local time and will land in New Delhi on Thursday at around 6:20 am (IST).
The Boeing 777, which took off from New Jersey, USA on July 2, landed in Barbados around 2 am local time and the airport staff stated that they had never seen a bigger plane land at the Grantley Adams International airport, which resumed its operations on Tuesday, according to PTI.
"Air India managed to send a flight on a charter basis in close coordination with the BCCI officials to bring the players home. Fortunately, this aircraft could be made available after accommodating the passengers due to fly from Newark to Delhi in another Air India flight," sources told PTI. "These passengers could have been inconvenienced but would have wholeheartedly supported the change to ensure our champions come back,'' the source added.
Earlier, the Indian team was scheduled to leave around 6 pm local time on July 2 and arrive at 7.45 pm (IST) on Wednesday but the departure was delayed as the plane landed late in Barbados. Hurricane Beryl is now headed towards Jamaica. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to meet the men's cricket team at 11 am on Thursday. India won the T20 2024 World Cup title after pulling off a thrilling seven-run win over South Africa in the final on Saturday, June 29.
