CWG gold medallist Manika Batra, team denied entry into Air India flight; Netizens question India’s ‘sports culture’

Contd- On reaching Air India counter we were told dat flight is overbooked &only 10 members of TT team can fly which left us in a shock.7 of us are still unable to fly.All the tickets were booked by Balmer Lawrie.@Ra_THORe @PMOIndia Shocked at such mismanagement by @airindiain

— Manika Batra (@manikabatra_TT) July 22, 2018

As she expressed her shock online, Netizens were left fuming by the mismanagement and termed national carrier, Air India irresponsible.

This shows how incompetent national carrier is. And the respect given to national treasures like u

— Abhishek Jain (@IamJainAbhishek) July 23, 2018

It’s is unfortunate for our games and demoralizing our players who makes us so proud under the lesser facilities .this incident remarks our seriousness on our sporting culture ,take much serious to our other games to improve us in olampik& Asian ,these players are proud for us .

— Suraj pandey (@Suraj16325294) July 23, 2018

This is India, here only cricket players and film stars get special treatment.

— Ashok Goenka (@ashokgoenka) July 23, 2018

This is shocking.. Why this step motherly behavior with all the athletes who brought laurels for the nation at global platform… Please punish the guilty and do the best for these athletes.. They are our pride…

— Akash pandey (@PandeyAkash) July 22, 2018

Heads must roll in this type of inefficiency ! I mean this is too much of shame !

— Arun Arora #RYP (@Arun2981) July 22, 2018

Soon, Sports India DG Neelam Kapur took cognizance of the matter and assured arrangments will be made for the star players to reach the tournament on time. “The TT team have been booked on an alternate flight leaving later tonight,” Kapur confirmed later.

Will look into this immediately @Media_SAI @manikabatra_TT https://t.co/3bjQdvg0Ht

— Neelam Kapur (@NeelamKapur) July 22, 2018

The TT team have been booked on an alternate flight leaving later tonight. @manikabatra_TT https://t.co/PwN0r6RDuY

— Neelam Kapur (@NeelamKapur) July 22, 2018

I would like to thank @NeelamKapur mam for the prompt action and getting our tickets booked for tonight. Finally got my boarding pass and flying soon. Thanks @Media_SAI @Ra_THORe sir @PMOIndia sir pic.twitter.com/ciZPt07fAB

— Manika Batra (@manikabatra_TT) July 22, 2018

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Air India came forward with a statement later and said that they were not “apprised beforehand about the travel of team”. On Twitter, the airline company also informed, “The Indian #Tabletennisteam were booked for today’s Melbourne flight under different PNRs & some of them may have reported after all other passengers had checked in [SIC].”

#FlyAI : #airindia has a rich legacy in promoting sports and has always had the highest respect for sportspersons. The Indian #Tabletennisteam were booked for today’s melbourne flt under different PNRs & some of them may have reported after all other pax had checked in. (Part 1)

— Air India (@airindiain) July 22, 2018

#FlyAI : (Part 2) Contrary to the practice, #AirIndia was not apprised beforehand about the travel of team. The players were provided with hotel stay and offered flight for next day.

— Air India (@airindiain) July 22, 2018

The team reached late. They were supposed to reach three hours before the flight but reached at 10.30 for the flight at 12.40. https://t.co/q3ByMlzrTO

— Neelam Kapur (@NeelamKapur) July 22, 2018

Kapur too added that they reached at 10:30 for a 12:40 flight. However, Netizens were not convinced with this and said two hours was enough for checking and the players shouldn’t have gone through all this. Many asked if cricketers would have received the same treatment.

That’s absurd. As a regular international traveller including through your lovely country, 2 hours is plenty and per airline rules it’s 90 mins (at most).

Your implication that it was somehow rebooked because they were ONLY 2.10 hours before flight time is just absurd…

— Andrew Smith (@AndrewSmith_AU) July 23, 2018

How conveniently u putting the blame on team members to close the matter mam.. reaching 130 mins prior to departure is definitely all right.

— Pranav Nigam (@pranavnigam) July 22, 2018

Reaching 2 hrs prior is a pretty good timing. That is no excuse for denying boarding. Boarding gate closes 45 mins prior, and 1 hr of time is a sufficient time for completing boarding formalities. I wonder why this 3 hr reason is being cited.

— Shantinath Chaudhary (@shantihp) July 22, 2018

Checkin Closes 60 min before boarding for int flights. If team is there at 10.30 for 12.40 flight then how come your staff can’t board them. This show either you have inefficient staff orlike always your system was down. To cover up this 3 hr is being put as an excuse. @Ra_THORe

— prateek khanna (@prateek2009in) July 22, 2018

What rubbish! Isn’t 2 hours & 10 mins sufficient to on-board passengers?

— Jimmy (@joysonz) July 22, 2018

This is really absurd clarification, As per airline rules they need to report 90 minutes before. Really bizarre

— ANSHUL BAINS (@anshulbains) July 22, 2018

This is horrible from Air India. No wonder, people don’t prefer to fly the airline.

— Rhik Kundu (@RhikKundu) July 23, 2018

Why @airindiain need to be apprised beforehand when our CWG medalist @manikabatra_TT and team was holding confirmed air ticket?
Issuing tickets means ntg den?

— मोहम्मद ಶಿಹಾಮ್ قادر (@shiham_khader) July 23, 2018

@Ra_THORe This is a huge embarrassment. It just shows that #Indian authorities still consider the cricketing gods as our real sportstars. Would #AirIndia do something like this to the likes of @imVkohli or @msdhoni? #ManikaBatra https://t.co/zVRAAjXKbf

— Sunita Iyer (@sunitaiyer) July 23, 2018

#AirIndia has a legacy of inefficiency right from bottom to top and hence no surprise for the treatment meted out to our players.

— shishir (@shishir_jha) July 23, 2018

This is what Air India should have done
1. Ask already checked in pax that Indian Team with Manika Batra heading for comp so 7 ppl Pls volunteer to give up seats.
2. Those 7 would get hotel stay with upgrade next flight.
Had u done that NEWS would have been in ur favor 😏😎 https://t.co/R3bHks1Mqp

— Mark Kumar Sharma (MK) (@MarkKumar3) July 23, 2018

Only three hours ? Why not 3 days before departure ?

— manko (@uhaish) July 22, 2018

The problem is , the team that is blamed here doesn’t play @BCCI CRICKET. they don’t have names that represent billion $ cashflow like @msdhoni @imVkohli @sachin_rt and many more cash cows.

— Tan (@realTanmayMS) July 22, 2018

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