Laloo may trash NDA but as father of the bride, gets a special aircraft

The 119-seater aircraft left at 5.40 pm and was scheduled to return around midnight. ‘‘The arrival in Delhi depends upon how long the guests want to stay on to attend the festivities,’’ sources said.

Indian Airlines officials said that they had merely operated ‘‘an additional flight’’ because of the high demand for seats. However, they admitted that the only passengers on this flight were VIPs going for the wedding. ‘‘We operate an additional flight if there are a reasonable number of passengers wanting to board it. As far as we know, all passengers have bought tickets, whether at a concessional rate or not is not known,’’ an Indian Airlines official told The Indian Express.

Sources, however, said operating an additional flight was not a very common practice for the airline. ‘‘It is only done on special recommendations,’’ sources added.