(
Airline and the national
Flag Carrier of
India with a network of passenger and cargo services worldwide. It is one of the two state-owned airlines in the country, the other being
Indian Airlines . Its main base is
Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport ,
Mumbai , with hubs at
Indira Gandhi International Airport ,
New Delhi and
Chennai International Airport . The airline connects 44 destinations around the world, including 12 gateways in
India .
Air India Express is a fully-owned subsidiary of Air India.
Air India traces its history back to
October 15 ,
1932 when its founder,
J. R. D. Tata flew a single engined
De Havilland Puss Moth registered VT-and carrying air mail (postal mail of
Imperial Airways ) from
Karachi 's Drigh Road Aerodrome to
Bombay 's
Juhu Airstrip via
Ahmedabad . The aircraft continued to
Madras via
Bellary piloted by a
Royal Air Force pilot Neville Vincent. That same year, the airline was formally established as Tata Airlines, a division of Tata Sons Ltd. (now
Tata Group ). Following the end of
World War II , regular commercial service was restored in India and Tata Airlines became a public limited company on
29 July 1946 under the name Air India.
1948 was a significant year in the history of the airline when 49% of it was acquired by the
Government Of India , with an option to purchase an additional 2% at any time. In return, the airline was granted status to operate international services from India as the designated
Flag Carrier under the name Air India International. On
June 8 ,
1948 a
Lockheed Constellation L-749A named ''Malabar Princess'' and registered VT-CQP took off from
Bombay bound for
London via
Cairo and
Geneva . This marked the airline's first longhaul international flight, soon followed by service to
Nairobi via
Aden .
On
1 August 1953 , the
Government Of India exercised its option to purchase a majority stake in the carrier and Air India International Limited was born as one of the fruits of the Air Corporations Act that nationalised the air transportation industry. At the same time all domestic services were transferred to
Indian Airlines . In 1954, the airline took delivery of its first L-1049
Super Constellations and inaugurated services to
Singapore ,
Bangkok ,
Hong Kong and
Tokyo .
Air India International entered the jet age in 1960 when its first
Boeing 707 , named ''Nandadevi'' and registered VT-DJJ, was delivered. Jet services to
New York via
London were inaugurated that same year. On
June 8 ,
1962 the airline's name was officially truncated to its current form of Air India. On
June 11 ,
1962 Air India became the world's first all-jet airline.
In 1970, Air India moved its offices into its own custom built skyscraper in downtown
Bombay . The next year, the airline took delivery of its first
Boeing 747-200 named ''Emperor Ashoka'' and registered VT-EBD. This coincided with the introduction of the 'Palace In The Sky' livery and branding. A distinctive feature of this livery is the paintwork around each aircraft window, in the cusped arch style of windows in
Mughal palaces.
In 1986 Air India took delivery of
Airbus A310 s. The airline is the largest operator of this type in passenger service. In 1988, Air India also took delivery of two
Boeing 747-300 s in mixed passenger-cargo configuration.
In 1989, to supplant its "Flying Palace" livery, Air India introduced a new livery that was mostly white but had a golden sun on a red tail. Only applied to around a half of Air India's fleet, the new livery failed to "take off" as the Indian flying public raised a hue and a cry about the phasing out of the classic colours. The new livery was dropped after two years and the old scheme was re-introduced. Since then, Air India has been hesitant to radically change the paint scheme, instead opting for minor updates and facelifts.
In 1993, Air India took delivery of the new flagship of its fleet when the first
Boeing 747-400 named ''Konark'' and registered VT-ESM made history by operating the first ever nonstop flight between New York and Delhi.
In 1994 the airline was registered as Air India Ltd. In 1996, the airline inaugurated service to its second US gateway at
Chicago ’s
O'Hare International Airport . In 1999, the airline opened its dedicated Terminal 2-C at the newly renamed
Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport in
Mumbai .
The
21st Century has seen Air India introduce new services to
Shanghai in
China , as well as two new US gateways at
Newark Liberty International Airport and
LAX .
-400 queues for take off at
London Heathrow Airport ]]
Air-India has registered a profit of Rs 133.85 crores (Approx USD 30 million) in the financial year ending March 31, 2003, after taking into account the deferred tax benefit. In the year 2002, it recorded a net profit of Rs 15.44 crores. Air-India earned a total revenue of Rs 5658 crores (Approx USD 1.26 billion) in 2002-03 as against Rs 5017 crores (Approx USD 1.1 billion) in the previous year. The airline has ambitious plans to expand its network and acquire new aircraft. The newly elected Government of India has appointed Mr.Praful Patel, as the Minister for Civil Aviation who plans to make the airline "A Maharaja of the Skies ".
In -
Frankfurt -
Los Angeles ,
Delhi -
Amritsar -
Birmingham -
Toronto , and
Delhi -
Dhaka -
Kolkata -
London .
Furthermore, in the course of 2005, Air India announced interest of commencing service linking Delhi and Mumbai to Houston, Washington DC, and San Francisco. However, the authorities of Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport have attempted to lure the airline to form its first direct air link to India. The addition of any new U.S. services has yet to be announced. In addition, Air India may add such destinations as Sydney, Melbourne, Rome, Zurich, and Moscow in the coming years. In early 2006, it was announced that Air India and the other state-run carrier,
Indian Airlines may merge.
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Being a government owned airline, Air India is routinely pressured by middle ranking bureaucrats of all ministries and their friends to fly Business class with Economy class tickets. According to recent TV reports, on the average 90% of Business Class tickets out of India are from this class of freebie government employee passengers.
Since 1970, Air India has suffered the following events:
with
Prime Minister Of India aboard.]]
Air India has 44 world-wide destinations. It also has code-sharing agreements with many international airlines to expand coverage. The airline carried 3.39 million passengers during the financial year ending March 2003 and achieved a load factor of 71.6 per cent, substantially higher than the 66 per cent load factor recorded in the preceding year.
The airline has received a 4 star rating for cabin safety procedures from
Skytrax airline quality review. Three classes of seats are offered - First class, Executive class and Economy class. Flat bed seats are offered for first class passengers. The airline also offers a
Frequent Flyer Programme alone and in collaboration with many of its alliances. The airline also offers luxury lounges in its ground terminals for its First and Executive class travelers in select destinations within India. Air-India has
Duty Free sale on board its flights effective June 1, 2003 named 'sky bazaar', meaning ''Market in the sky''.
Air India and its low-cost subsidiary
Air India Express currently operate the following 41 aircraft:
- 19 Airbus A310
- 15 Boeing 747
- ---2 Boeing 747-300M Combi
- ---12 Boeing 747-400
- ---1 Boeing 747-400M Combi
- 4 Boeing 777
- ---3 Boeing 777-200ER
- ---1 Boeing 777-200A
Air India recently placed an order for the following 68 aircraft from
Boeing :
Air India plans to use the B777-300ER aircraft to replace their B747-300M aircraft and B747-400 leased aircraft. They will operate on routes to Europe and the U.S. They plan to use their 787-8 aircraft to replace their aging A310-300 aircraft on routes to the Middle East and Southeast and East Asia. The B777-200LR will operate on non-stop routes to North America. These new aircraft will also allow Air India to open up new routes to Australia, other cities in Europe, East Asia, Canada, and the U.S.
Air India also plans to refurbish the interiors of its 6 owned Boeing 747-400s. This refurbishment will include PTVs in all classes. A new re-structuring of the airline is set to occur before the IPO is released in the middle of 2006. Air India is set to merge with
Indian Airlines
to create a mega airline consisting of 130 to 140 aircraft. This will occur in the 2006 fiscal year. The combined entity is leaning toward joining
Star Alliance to expand coverage and to be one of the biggest South Asian airlines.
In 1954, Air-India started its freighter operations with a
Douglas DC-3 Dakota aircraft, giving Air-India the distinction of being the first Asian airline to operate freighters. The airline operates regular cargo flights to many destinations of the world. The airline also has ground truck-transportation arrangements on select destinations.
A member of IATA, Air-India carries all types of cargo including dangerous goods (hazardous materials) and live animals, provided such shipments are tendered according to IATA
Dangerous Goods Regulations and
IATA Live Animals Regulations , respectively.
At the warehouse in Mumbai, Air India has developed an indigenous system of inventory management for cargo handling of import/export functions. This takes care of the entire management of cargo, supports
Electronic Data Interface (EDI) messages with
Indian Customs and replaces to a great extent existing paper correspondence between Customs, Airlines, and the custodians. This also replaces manual handling and binning of cargo at the warehouse in Mumbai by Air India.
As it symbolises movement and speed, the
Centaur , a stylised version of
Sagittarius , was selected as Air-India's
Logo . The choice of a
Constellation was also intended as an
Allusion to the airline's original long distance routes with Lockheed Constellation aircraft.
Air India's mascot, the
Maharaja , is a turban clad king with over-sized moustache and a royal dress. "He may look like royalty, but he isn't royal" - these are the words of Bobby Kooka, the man who conceived the Maharajah. This figure first made his appearance in Air-India in 1946, when Bobby Kooka as Air-India's Commercial Director and Umesh Rao, an artist with J.Walter Thompson Ltd., Mumbai, together created the Maharajah.
Air India has recently modified its Centaur Logo, now the Archer is pointing upwards towards the sky.
There are 17 women pilots on Air India's rolls, including five trainee pilots.
On the occasion of the
International Women's Day , March 3rd 2004, the airline operated an "All women Flight" from Mumbai to Singapore. Capt. Rashmi Miranda, who became Air-India's first woman Commander in
November 2003 and Capt. Kshmata Bajpai, piloted the flight, an Airbus A310 aircraft. The flight despatch activities relating to this flight was also coordinated by a woman Flight Despatcher, Ms Vasanti Kolnad. The Safety Audit on board was also conducted by another woman, Ms Harpreet D. Singh.
- The Airline entered the Guinness Book Of World Records - The largest evacuation by a civil airliner, involving evacuation of over 111,000 people from Amman to Mumbai - a distance of 4,117 km, by operating 488 flights in association with Indian Airlines , during August 13 - October 11 , 1990 , lasting a total of 59 days. The operation was carried out during Persian Gulf War in 1990 to evacuate Indian Expatriates from Kuwait and Iraq .
- The airline received The Mercury Award for the years 1994 and 2003, from the International Flight Catering Association, for finest in-flight catering services.
- Air India's security department became the first aviation security organisation in the world to acquire ISO 9002 - 1994 certification( January 31 , 2001 ).
- The Department of Engineering, Air India, has obtained the ISO 9002 for its Engineering facilities for meeting international standards.
- The Indian Prime Minister's flight operated by Air India is called AI 001 .
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