With the continuation of strike by a section of pilots of the Jet airways, the airline cancelled about eight of its flights from Chennai including the one to Colombo on Wednesday.
Following this the Air India has operated an additional flight from Chennai, which picked up the stranded passengers of the Jet who were on their way to Colombo. The national carrier also carried the Indian cricket team players, who were stranded at Chennai and Bangalore.
Air India spokes person said the additional flight to Colombo would depart from Chennai to Bangalore around 11 a.m. and it would reach Bangalore at 11.45 a.m. Around 12.45 p.m. it would depart for Colombo. In the return direction it would reach Chennai around 4 p.m. on Wednesday.
The national carrier operated a Boeing 737-800 aircraft, which has a capacity of 186 passengers, said the Air India authorities.
Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Gautam Ghambir, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, Amit Mishra, Yusuf Pathan, N.Patel, Abishek Nayar, Dinesh Karthik, Ashish Nehra were the Indian Cricket team players who boarded the Air India's additional flight besides the three coaches Robin Singh, Venkatesh Prasad and Garry Kristen, the Air India authorities added.
