NEW DELHI: Three-time Grammy award winner Ricky Kej and his band found themselves in an unenviable situation on Thursday morning when they were almost forced to cancel a crucial concert in New Delhi after Air India suddenly cancelled their flight from Bengaluru. The cancellation came to their attention only upon arriving at the terminal.
Compounding the issue, the airline staff reportedly offered the trio only a flight to Delhi scheduled 12.5 hours later, despite the availability of seats on an earlier flight departing just an hour later.
Flight AI 2804, originally scheduled to depart at 9.55 am, was cancelled. However, the airline’s website continued to display the flight as operational, leading to further confusion among passengers.
Kej expressed his frustration at what he described as “deceptive” behaviour by the airline. Speaking to this reporter, the Padma Shri awardee said, “As we were entering Terminal 2 through a DigiYatra gate, we were informed that our flight had been cancelled. When I approached the Air India counter to explore alternatives, many other passengers who had just learned of the cancellation in a similar manner were also upset and seeking options.”
He added that Air India initially offered them a late-night flight at around 10 pm on Thursday, as no earlier tickets were shown as available. “I had a crucial concert in Delhi on Friday. Our band members come from different cities across India, and we needed to rehearse together today. Without that rehearsal, we could not perform. Had we taken the late-night flight, I would have had no option but to consider cancelling the concert, which was extremely distressing,” he said.
While the group remained at the terminal, two staff members at Kempegowda International Airport, Vivek and Chandran, stepped in to assist. “They checked and found tickets on an Air India flight at 11 pm and intervened on our behalf with the airline staff, who then agreed to accommodate us. We had earlier been told that no tickets were available, which appeared false and misleading. It seemed those seats may have been allocated elsewhere,” Kej alleged, while expressing gratitude to the airport staff for their help.
In response, Air India sources stated that passengers are notified of flight changes via automated phone and email alerts. “All our passengers are informed through system-generated notifications. In this case, Kej had not provided his personal contact details; the booking may have been made through a travel agent, and the intimation would have been sent accordingly. This is a common issue we face with many passengers,” a source said.
However, the airline did not clarify why Kej’s band members, who had booked their tickets independently, only received cancellation notifications on their phones shortly before departure time.
Interestingly, the flight status on the airline’s website was still showing as departed later that night, adding to the confusion.
Despite the disruption, the trio managed to reach Delhi by around 2 pm and proceeded with their rehearsals as planned. Kej also took to social media platform X to criticise Air India, to which the airline responded that the cancellation was due to adverse weather conditions in Delhi the previous night, requesting his understanding in the matter.