New Delhi Airport News:
China Airlines Launches Non-Stop Flights To London 16/01/2010
China Airlines will launch scheduled passenger services between Taipei, Taiwan and London, England, starting on March 28. The new flights, CI-069 from Taipei to London, and CI-070 from London to Taipei, will operate three times per week, using an ...
Tourism Authority of Thailand opens second India office in Mumbai 01/11/2009
The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) New Delhi Office announced that TAT will open its second India office in the city of Mumbai on November 2, 2009. This expansion is to accommodate the rapid growth of the Indian tourist outbound travel to ...
Raunak International Hotel New Delhi 19/09/2009
This hotel, located within close proximity to the New Delhi Railway Station, is luxuriously adorned. The hotel is situated 10-kilometers from the Nizamuddin Rail Station, and 20-minutes from the International and Domestic Airports. The on-site ...
Jet Airways to launch New Delhi - Hong Kong daily services, effective September 30, 2009 05/09/2009
Jet Airways, India's premier international airline, will launch its second daily flight to Hong Kong from India, with daily services on the Delhi-Hong Kong sector aboard state-of-the-art wide-body Airbus 330-200 aircraft, effective September 30, ...
Fairmont to open hotel in Jaipur 09/06/2009
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, will set foot in India with its first property in Jaipur near Amber.
The largest luxury hospitality chain in North America with 56 iconic properties and 22,000 hotel rooms around the globe will also be the largest so far ...
Air India is India's national flag carrier. Although air transport
was born in India on February 18, 1911 when Henri Piquet, flying a Humber
bi-plane, carried mail from Allahabad to Naini Junction, some six miles
away, the scheduled services in India, in the real sense, began on October
15, 1932. It was on this day that J.R.D. Tata, the father of Civil Aviation
in India and founder of Air India, took off from Drigh Road Airport,
Karachi, in a tiny, light single-engined de Havilland Puss Moth on his
flight to Mumbai (then known as Bombay) via Ahmedabad.
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| Air India is India's national flag carrier.
Although air transport was born in India on February 18, 1911 when Henri
Piquet, flying a Humber bi-plane, carried mail from Allahabad to Naini
Junction, some six miles away, the scheduled services in India, in the real
sense, began on October 15, 1932. It was on this day that J.R.D. Tata, the
father of Civil Aviation in India and founder of Air India, took off from
Drigh Road Airport, Karachi, in a tiny, light single-engined de Havilland
Puss Moth on his flight to Mumbai (then known as Bombay) via Ahmedabad.
He landed with his precious load of mail on a grass strip at Juhu. At
Mumbai, Neville Vintcent, a former RAF pilot who had come to India from
Britain three years earlier on a barn-storming tour, during which he had
surveyed a number of possible air routes, took over from J.R.D.Tata and flew
the Puss Moth to Chennai (then Madras) via Bellary.
Tata Airlines
Tata Airlines, as Air India was then known, consisted of one Puss Moth,
one Leopard Moth, one palm-thatched shed, one whole time pilot assisted by
Tata and Vintcent, one part-time engineer, two apprentice-mechanics and
unlimited optimism.
In 1933, the first full year of its operations, Tata Airlines flew
160,000 miles, carried 155 passengers and 10.71 tonnes of mail. Tata
Airlines was converted into a Public Company under the name of Air India in
August 1946.
Going Global
By the beginning of 1947, Air India turned its attention to the
international scene. Towards the end of the year, an agreement was reached
with the Government of India for the formation of Air India International
Limited to operate international services.
At Air India's request, the Government agreed to limit their capital
participation to 49 per cent, subject to an option to acquire, at any time,
a further two per cent from Air India.
Air India International, which was registered on March 8, 1948,
inaugurated its international services on June 8, 1948, with a weekly flight
from Mumbai to London via Cairo and Geneva with a Lockheed Constellation
aircraft.
Nationalisation
The early '50s saw the financial condition of various airlines operating
in India deteriorate to such an extent that the Government decided to step
in and nationalise the air transport industry and accordingly two autonomous
Corporations were created on August 1, 1953.
Indian Airlines was formed with the merger of eight domestic airlines to
operate domestic services, while Air India International was established to
operate the overseas services.
The word 'International' was dropped in 1962. Effective March 1, 1994,
the airline has been functioning as Air India Limited.
From a total of three stations served at the time of nationalisation, Air
India's worldwide network today covers 44 destinations by operating services
with its own aircraft and through code-shared flights. |