The charter flight that never was

Champions League qualifiers are a hectic phase in the European club football calendar these days. Clubs play their first, second and third rounds on successive mid-week match days and there is hardly any time to recover, take a deep breath and prepare properly. Rolling planning is the call and every now and then, a nicely set-up plan just has to be ditched because while the backroom staff has probably done the right thing, the guys on the pitch just have not scored enough goals.

Going into this week's qualifiers, Dynamo Kyiv was facing the choice between FC Basel and LASK Linz for the opposition in the play-off for a Champions League group stage ticket. Plans were set up how to get to Basel next week, using a Windrose Airbus A320 or A321. Now, the way things panned out in Linz, the Austrian vice-champions won the tie against their Swiss counterparts. Surely, Dynamo Kyiv would have had a plan as to how to travel to Austria as well. But in the end, they will not have to. Kyiv lost their tie to FC Brugge as well, so they will have to make do with a spot in the Europa League.

7W7771 KBP xxxx-1230 BSL A320/A321 (19/08/19)
7W7772 BSL 0100-xxxx KBP A320/A321 (21/08/19)

Windrose Air A321s have made it to Basel in the past, operating for Dynamo Kyiv as well such as in 2017