History of Indian Airlines

It was set up on June 15, 1953 after legislation came into force to nationalise the entire airline industry in India. Two new national airlines were to be formed along the same lines as happened in Britain with BOAC and BEA. Air India International took over international routes and Indian Airlines Corporation took over the domestic and regional routes. However recently both have been merged as one Ailines namely Air India. In between Indian airlines was also named 'Indian'.

Indian Railways    Indian Airlines

Eight former independent domestic airlines; Deccan Airways, Airways - India, Bharat Airways, Himalayan Aviation, Kalinga Air Lines, Indian National Airways, Air India, Air Services of India, were merged to form the new domestic national carrier. Indian Airlines Corporation inherited a large fleet of 74 DC-3 Dakotas, 12 Vikings, 3 DC-4s and various smaller types from the 8 airlines that made it up. Viscounts were introduced in 1957 with Fokker F-27 Friendships being delivered from 1961.

The jet age began for IAC with the introduction of the pure-jet Caravelle airliner in 1964. The 1960s also saw Hawker Siddeley 748 twins, manufactured in India. In the 1970s, Airbus A300 wide-body jets were introduced. Boeing 737-200s were also used. By 1990, Airbus A320s were in use.

Recently, competition on internal routes has been growing with the formation of a number of private airlines, the most successful of which has been Jet Airways.

Indian Airlines aircraft livery is one of the longest in terms of time. Its aircraft are mainly white. The belly is in bare metal color. Above the windows, "Indian Airlines" is written in English on one side and Hindi on other. The tail is bright orange in color with its symbol in white (essentially the reverse of its logo). In most of the aircrafts, the logo is also painted on the engines over its bare metal color.

Services

It flies to 64 domestic and 16 international destinations offering 35,000 seats per day and is India's largest airline. The Indian Airlines international network covers the following destinations: