( CNN ) -- Delta Airlines said Tuesday that it did n't bump 50 passengers just to accommodate the travel plans of a nationally ranked college basketball team on Sunday , one of the busiest travel days of the year . A spokesman for the carrier said the plane the 15th-ranked University of Florida Gators were supposed to use had an engine problem , so the carrier put them on another jet out of Gainesville while workers tried to fix the issue . When the problem could n't be solved , Delta booked many of the 50 passengers headed to Atlanta on a later flight . A handful of passengers left on flights Monday , Morgan Durrant said . The story made national sports websites Monday with headlines like `` Delta bumps entire flight to accommodate the Florida basketball team , '' but Durrant said the fact that it was a charter flight played no role in the plane swap . Flight schedules weigh heavily on operational decisions , he said . The Gators were due to take off at 3 p.m. , and the commercial flight was scheduled to depart about a half-hour later . ExpressJet , the regional carrier that operated both flights , assured Delta that it would have the problem solved in time , Durrant said . `` We do n't bias toward the chartered side of the business , '' Durrant said , pointing out that such flights make up a tiny percentage of Delta 's business . `` All of our customers have somewhere to go . '' Earlier , Durant told CNN that none of the 50 passengers had been pulled off their original flight , and they were all offered vouchers toward a future flight . A spokesman for the Gators said they had no idea the planes had been swapped . `` UF was not part of the decision-making process , '' Denver Parler said . `` We arrived , boarded and departed as we normally would . '' The Gators lost the Monday game , by the way , dropping a last-second 65-64 decision to the Connecticut Huskies . CNN 's Alina Machado , John Couwels , Jill Martin and Meridith Edwards contributed to this report .
Delta say team got new plane because it was supposed to take off first . 50 passengers on second flight had to be rebooked when engine problem could n't be fixed . Comment: The planes are not designed for long flights, they're built with a specific purpose in mind : the shortest possible route between two points. Florida lost to UConn by one point on Monday .