| History: |
Air India was founded in 1932 as
Tata Airlines. The airline's inaugural flight occurred on October 15,
1932 when it's founder, J. R. D. Tata flew a De Havilland Puss Moth
carrying postal mail of Imperial Airways from Karachi to Bombay via
Ahmedabad. Following the end of World War II, commercial air service in
India was restored and Tata Airlines became a public limited company on
July 29, 1946 under the name Air India. In 1948 49% of the Air India was
acquired by the Government of India and the airline was granted status
to operate international services from India as the designated flag
carrier, under the name Air India International. The first international
flight occurred on June 8, 1948 when a Lockheed Constellation L-749A
departed Bombay for London via Cairo and Geneva. On August 1, 1953, the
Government of India exercised its option to purchase a majority stake in
the carrier and Air India International Ltd. was born as one of the
fruits of the Air Corporations Act that nationalized the air
transportation industry. Additionally, all domestic services were
transferred to Indian Airlines. In 1954, the airline took delivery of
its first L-1049 Super Constellations and Air India International
entered the jet age in 1960 when its first Boeing 707 was delivered. On
June 8, 1962 the airline was rebranded Air India. 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 gain public
acceptance and was dropped after two years, with the old livery was
reintroduced. |
