The Story of Air India

Do you know the story behind the iconic airline of India? This story will tell you about how Air India was created.
        
On October 15th, 1932, JRD. Tata Indias first licensed pilot founded the airline Tata air Mail. Its first flight was from Karachi-Ahmedabad-Mumbai. The flight was piloted by Tata himself and the aircraft was a single engine puss moth aircraft. The flight usually took about 8 hours because the planes could only fly at 50mph. After a year the airline changed its name to Tata airlines then after India's Independence the airline was renamed into Air India International 

Bombay-London was its first international destination. But now things take a deep dive downward as then the government of India took control of Air India from the Tatas. Then upon seeing how the tatas managed the airline the government then decided to sell the airline back to the Tatas in 1953 for another twenty-five years. Tata spent half nearly half of his day for Air India. He decided things like what color the flight attendants' saris were and if he saw a dirty counter he would clean it himself. And did you know that their first class was so exclusive that the king and queen of Sweden flew Air India as well as Pope Paul vi. Then in 1955 Chinese premier Zhou Enlai flew with it to Indonesia because at that time China did not have the long-range aircraft to travel to Indonesia. 

In 1960 Air India was the first airline in Asia to acquire a jet aircraft the Boeing 707 named Gauri Shankar. Then the fate of Air India was about to change as on New Years Day 1978, Air Indias Emperor Ashoka Boeing 747 aircraft crashed into sea off the coast of Bombay 101 seconds after takeoff, no one survived. 

After the crash the then prime minister Moraji Desi and the government took control of Air India. JRD knew that the airline would not be able to run under the government and he was correct. Travelers from Kerala to the middle east were made to go through Mumbai with a stopover time that was ridiculous an 8hour stopover. Then when Indira Gandhi became prime minister in 1980, she appointed JRD as owner of Air India but then the government again took control of the airline.

But then Indian airlines merged with Air India causing huge problem like debts that Indian airlines had. So now Air Indias debts had increased, and the US was threating to sanction India because it had not signed the agreement for nuclear testing that India was doing at the time. But president Bush had a solution, he told the chairman of Air India to buy 10 planes from Boeing instead of Airbus and then he would be able to convince the congress not to sanction India. Air India instead ordered 111 planes for about $9 billion putting more debt because of interest payments. Government of India absorbed some of the debts and transferred the control of Air India back to the Tatas in 2021. The Tata under Ratan Tata now controls over 141 planes, rights to 173 destination which include 55 international destinations.

                                                                        THE END











 

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