Indian Airlines was a state-owned airline in India that later became adivision ofAir India Limited before ultimately ceasing operations. It was based inDelhi and focused primarily on domestic routes, along with several international services to neighbouring countries in Asia and limited flights to the Middle East and Southeast Asia. It was adivision ofAir India Limited after the merger of eight pre-Independence domestic airlines.
On 10 December 2005, the airline was rebranded asIndian for advertising purposes as a part of a program to revamp its image in preparation for aninitial public offering (IPO).[1] The airline operated closely withAir India, India's national overseas carrier.Alliance Air was a fully owned subsidiary of Indian.[2]
In 2007, the Government of India announced that Indian Airlines would be merged into Air India Limited as its wholly ownedsubsidiary. As part of the merger process, a new company called the National Aviation Company of India Limited (now called Air India Limited) was established, into which both Air India (along withAir India Express) and Indian (along with Alliance Air) would be merged. Once the merger was completed on 26 February 2011, the airline – called Air India – would continue to be headquartered in Mumbai and would have a fleet of over 130 aircraft.[3]
Older orange logo of Indian Airlines until the 2005 rebrand
The airline was set up under theAir Corporations Act, 1953 with an initial capital of ₹32 million and started operations on 1 August 1953. It was established after legislation came into force tonationalise the entire airline industry in India. Two new national airlines were to be formed along the same lines as happened in the United Kingdom withBritish Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) andBritish European Airways (BEA). Air India took over international routes and Indian Airlines Corporation (IAC) took over the domestic and regional routes.
Eight pre-Independence domestic airlines,Deccan Airways, Airways India, Bharat Airways,Himalayan Aviation,Kalinga Airlines,Indian National Airways,Air Services of India and the domestic wing of Air India, were merged to form the new domestic national carrier Indian Airlines Corporation. International operations of Air India Ltd. was taken over by the newly formed Air India International. Indian Airlines Corporation inherited a fleet of 99 aircraft including 74Douglas DC-3 Dakotas, 12Vickers Vikings, 3Douglas DC-4s and various smaller types from the seven airlines that made it up.
Indian Airlines Sud Aviation Caravelle III parked at Mumbai AirportHS 748 built in India, operated by Indian Airlines, at Mumbai Airport in 1974Indian Airlines Boeing 737-200 in 1998
The Indian Government liberalised the private sector in Early 90s and with the emergence of new competitors, Indian Airlines faced tough competition fromJet Airways,Air Sahara,East-West Airlines,Skyline NEPC andModiLuft. Yet, until 2005, Indian Airlines was the second-largest airline in India after Jet Airways while Air Sahara controlled 17% of the Indian aviation industry. During that time few other domestic carriers like East-West Airlines, Skyline NEPC and ModiLuft discontinued their flight operations.
Also, during 1993, another government-established regional feeder airline calledVayudoot was merged with Indian Airlines, but still operated as a standalone division until 1997 after which its entire flight operations were transferred to Indian Airlines and its employees absorbed into Indian Airlines and Air India.[citation needed]
Since 2003, the rise oflow-cost domestic competitorsAir Deccan,SpiceJet,IndiGo,GoAir andKingfisher Airlines along with its low-cost armKingfisher Red led Indian Airlines to reduce airfares. However, as of 2006, Indian Airlines was still a profit-making airline; in fact during 2004–2005 it made a record profit of₹656.1 million.[4] Indian Airlines Limited was partly owned by theGovernment of India (51% of share capital) through a holding company and had 19,300 employees as of March 2007.[5] Its annual turnover, together with that of its subsidiaryAlliance Air, was well over₹40 billions (aroundUS$1 billion). Together with its subsidiary, Alliance Air, Indian Airlines carried a total of over 7.5 million passengers annually.[6]
In 2007, theGovernment of India announced the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines. While the "Indian" branding was replaced with the Air India branding in the public eye by then, the "IC" and "IAC" codes of IATA and ICAO, respectively, and callsign "INDAIR" continued to be used on flights that were operated by the Airbus A320 family aircraft until 26 February 2011, when Indian Airlines ceased operating under its own brand and codes and completed its merger with Air India.[7]
The last plane to bear the final Indian Airlines livery, an Airbus A319 registered as VT-SCF was repainted in the Air India livery in 2018.
Indian Airlines Airbus A320-200 in its old liveryIndian Airlines Airbus A320-231 in its old livery at nightIndian Airlines 50th Anniversary livery in 2003Indian Airlines Airbus A320-200 in the airline's final 2005 livery
As of 2007, Indian operated an all-Airbus A320 family fleet.
Theaircraft livery used while the company was calledIndian Airlines was one of the longest in continuous use in the entire airline industry. The logo (IA) and the livery were designed byNational Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. Its aircraft were mainly white, with the belly painted in light metallic grey. Above the windows, "Indian Airlines" was written in English on the starboard side and in Hindi on port side. The tail was bright orange, with its logo in white. In most of the aircraft, the logo was also painted on the engines over its bare metal colour. Also, when the company was under the title of Indian Airlines, to celebrate its 50th year of service the airline put the slogan "50 years of flying" in gold on many of their aircraft.
After the name change toIndian, the company's aircraft sported a new look inspired by the Sun Temple atKonark inOdisha. The tail of their aircraft had a partial blue wheel since practically over half of it is cut off. The wheel is over an orange background with the carrier's name "Indian" written in English on one side of the fuselage, and in Hindi on the other. On 15 May 2007, the Government of India released the new merger livery, which was sent to Boeing in Seattle to repaint all the new fleet coming into the new Air India. Most of the old fleets of Air India and Indian Airlines have also been painted in the new livery.[11]
Indian operatedshort-haulAirbus A320 family aircraft. It offered 2 classes on most sectors: Economy Class and Executive Class. Economy Class had the typical 3-3 seating of a narrow-body Airbus aircraft. Passengers were offered complimentary meals. The Executive Class seat configuration was 2-2 with a generous recline. Meals were more lavish.
On 12 December 1953,Douglas C-47 Skytrain VT-CHF crashed on takeoff fromSonegaon Airport, following loss of engine power and an attempt to return to the airport. Of the 14 people onboard, only the captain survived.[12]
On 15 May 1956,Douglas C-47 Skytrain VT-DBA overranTribhuvan Airport after landing too fast. 14 out of the 33 onboard did not survive, a person on the ground also died.[14]
On 24 March 1958,Douglas C-47 Skytrain VT-CYN stalled and crash on approach toTribhuvan Airport following navigational error in poor weather conditions, all 20 occupants killed.[15]
On 29 March 1959,Douglas C-47 Skytrain VT-CGI experienced structural failure and crashed while on approach toSilchar Airport in bad weather, all 24 onboard died.[16]
On 3 June 1963,Douglas DC-3 VT-AUL crashed after takeoff fromPathankot Airport, breaking up in midair after jammed rudder. None of the 29 passengers and crew onboard survived.[18]
On 11 September 1963,Vickers Viscount VT-DIO crashed 51 kilometres (32 mi) south ofAgra, killing all 18 people on board.[19]
On 18 February 1969,Douglas DC-3 VT-CJH crashed on take-off fromJaipur – Sanganer Airport on a scheduled passenger flight. The aircraft was overloaded and take-off was either downwind or with a crosswind. All 30 people on board survived.[21]
On 21 April 1969, aFokker F27 Friendship plane crashed in a thunderstorm while crossing East Pakistani (now Bangladeshi) airspace on its flight fromAgartala toCalcutta, killing all 44 people on board.[22]
On 29 August 1970, aFokker F27 flew into high terrain nearSilchar shortly after takeoff, killing the five crew members and their 34 passengers.
On 30 January 1971, in the1971 Indian Airlines hijacking, aFokker F27 on a scheduled flight fromSrinagar toJammu was hijacked toLahore by Ashraf and Hashim Qureshi, two Kashmiri terrorists. Passengers were returned to India on 2 February, but the hijackers destroyed the aircraft. India and Pakistan, blaming each other's intelligence services, each banned the other country's overflights and India-Pakistan flights until 1976.
On 9 August 1971, aVickers Viscount VT-DIX was damaged beyond economic repair when it overran the runway atJaipur Airport. The aircraft was landed with a tailwind on a wet runway.[23]
On 9 December 1971, aHawker Siddeley HS 748 nearChinnamanur was descending intoMadurai when it flew into high terrain about 50 mi (80 km) from the airport, killing the four crew members and all 17 passengers. The accident occurred in reduced visibility during daylight hours.[24][25][26]
On 11 August 1972, aFokker F27 at New Delhi lost altitude and crashed after aborting a landing. The four crew members and the 14 passengers were killed.
On 15 March 1973, aHAL 748-224 Series 2 (VT-EAU) crashed near Begumpet Airport during a training flight, killing all three crew on board and one person on the ground. The pilots were drunk.
On 31 May 1973,Flight 440, aBoeing 737(registered VT-EAM), crashed and burned during landing at New Delhi, killing five of the seven crew members and 43 of the 58 passengers.
On 12 October 1976,Flight 171, aSud Aviation SE 210 Caravelle, had its right engine catch fire shortly after takeoff from Bombay. The crew attempted to return, but fuel flow to the engine was not stopped. When the fire spread through thefuselage and thehydraulic system failed, the aircraft controls failed before landing. All six crew members and their 89 passengers were killed.
On 17 December 1978, aBoeing 737-2A8 (VT-EAL) slid off the runway at Begumpet Airport following a wheels-up landing when the leading edge devices failed to deploy on takeoff, killing one of 132 on board and another three on the ground.[27]
On 4 August 1979, aHAL 748-224 Series 2 (VT-DXJ) aircraft was approaching Bombay Airport at night and in poor weather when it flew into high terrain approximately 6 mi (9.7 km) from the airport, killing the four crew members and their 41 passengers.
On 19 August 1981, Flight 557, aHAL 748 (VT-DXF) overshot the 5,783 feet (1,763 m) runway atMangalore Airport in wet weather. The aircraft came to a halt just beyond the runway edge. While there were no fatalities, the aircraft was damaged beyond repair and was written off. One of the passengers on board wasVeerappa Moily, the then Finance Minister of Karnataka.[28]
On 24 August 1984, Seven young hijackers demanded anIndian Airlines jetliner IC 421, on a domestic flight from Delhi to Srinagar with 100 passengers on board, be flown to the United States. The plane was taken to Lahore,Karachi and finally toDubai where the defense minister of UAE negotiated the release of the passengers. This hijack was related to the secessionist struggle in the Indian state of Punjab. The hijacker was subsequently extradited by UAE authorities to India, who handed over the pistol recovered from the hijacker.[29][30][31]
On 29 September 1986, anAirbus A300B2-1C(registered VT-ELV) overrun the runway atChennai International Airport during aborted takeoff caused bybird strike. None of 196 people on board were injured but the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.[32]
On 19 October 1988,Flight 113, aBoeing 737(registered VT-EAH) hit an electric mast 5 mi (8.0 km) out on approach to Ahmedabad in poor visibility, killing the six crew members and all but two of the 129 passengers.[33]
On 16 August 1991,Flight 257, aBoeing 737(registered VT-EFL) crashed on its descent into Imphal, killing all 69 occupants. The flight operating on the Calcutta-Imphal sector crashed into Thangjing Hills, about 20 nautical miles (40 km) south-west of the Imphal airport. The aircraft had taken off from Calcutta and began a descent into Imphal airport with the visibility at that time being seven kilometers. However, the aircraft lost contact with Imphal airport on the Instrument Landing System. The search and rescue efforts were hampered by bad weather conditions and a slushy terrain. The probable cause of the accident was attributed to an "error on the part of the Pilot-in-Command in not adhering to the operational flight.[35]
On 26 April 1993,Flight 491, aBoeing 737(registered VT-ECQ) started its takeoff from Aurangabad's runway 09 in hot and humid temperatures. After lifting off almost at the end of the runway, it heavily collided with a lorry on a highway at the end of the runway. The left main landing gear, left engine bottom cowling and thrust reverser impacted the left side of the truck at a height of nearly seven feet from the level of the road. Thereafter the aircraft hit the high tension electric wires nearly 3 km North-East of the runway and hit the ground, causing 63 Injuries and 55 fatalities.
On 15 November 1993, Indian Airlines Flight 440, anAirbus A300(registered VT-EDV) executed a missed approach atHyderabad's Begumpet Airport due to poor visibility, but theflaps failed to retract. After trying to solve the problem while flying in the vicinity of Hyderabad, the crew eventually diverted the aircraft to Chennai. The delay in diverting, and the need to fly slower due to the extended flaps, resulted in the aircraftrunning out of fuel on the way. The aircraft force-landed in apaddy field and was damaged beyond repair. All 262 people on board survived.Telugu actorsChiranjeevi andBala Krishna andAllu Ramalingaiah survived this crash attracting widespread attention.[36]
On 24 December 1999,Flight 814, anAirbus A300B2-101(registered VT-EDW) was hijacked just after taking off from Kathmandu, Nepal to Delhi. The plane flew around different points in thesubcontinent and the Middle east. It finally landed in Kandahar, Afghanistan, as officials of the government of India and theTaliban negotiated. One passenger was killed and some were released. On 31 December 1999, the rest of the hostages were freed in exchange for the release ofMushtaq Ahmed Zargar,Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh andMaulana Masood Azhar.[37] Indian Airlines, India's sole domestic airline up to 1993, was hijacked 16 times, from 1971 to 1999.
Given below is a chart of trend of profitability of Indian Airlines as published in the 2004 annual report byMinistry of Civil Aviation with figures in millions of Indian Rupees.[38]
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