India Airlines - India Transportation

Indian Airlines came into being with the enactment of the Air Corporations Act 1953 and was entrusted with the responsibility of providing air transportation within the country as well as to the neighbouring countries. Indian Airlines was given the task to assimilate various dimensions of the eight private airlines, which were nationalized to provide well coordinated, adequate, safe, efficient and economical air services. The airlines began its operation on 1st August, 1953. At the time of nationalization, Indian Airlines inherited a fleet of 99 aircraft consisting of various types of aircraft which were gradually replaced by Viscount, F27 and HS748. Nineteen hundred and sixty four(1964) was the beginning of the jet era in Indian Airlines when the Caravelle aircraft was inducted into the fleet. Between 1970 and 1982 Indian Airlines started inducting first batch of wide bodied Airbus A320 aircraft (19 aircraft) in June, 1989. Latest acquisition in IAL's fleet, the Airbus A319, was inducted in December, 2005.

Today, Indian Airlines, together with its fully owned subsidiary Alliance Air, has a fleet of 70 aircraft (3 wide bodied airbus A300s, 47 fly-by-wire airbus A320s, 3 Airbus A319s, 11 Boeing 737s, 2 Dornier Do-228 aircraft and 4 ATR-42. IA has already placed order for 43 new aircraft ( i.e. 19 A319s, 4 A320s & 21 A321s ), and their induction in IAL is expected to commence w.e.f. November, 2006.

Indian Airlines has been setting the standards for civil aviation in India since its inception in 1953. It has many firsts to its credit, including introduction of the wide bodied A300 aircraft on the domestic network, the fly-by-wire A320, domestic shuttle service, walk in flights and easy fares. Its unique logo emblazoned on the tails of all its aircraft has become synonymous with service, efficiency and reliability.

The Airlines' network spans from Kuwait in the west to Singapore in the East and covers 76 destinations - 58 within India and 18 abroad. The Indian Airlines international network covers Kuwait, Oman, UAE, Qatar and Bahrain in West Asia; Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Mayanmar in South East Asia and Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives in the South Asia sub-continent.

Indian Airlines is presently fully owned by the Government of India and has a total staff strength of around 19300 employees including that of Alliance Air. Its annual turnover, together with that of its subsidiary Alliance Air, is well over Rs.6000 crores(around US$ 1.4 billion).

Indian Airlines flight operations centre around its four main hubs the main metro cities of Delhi , Mumbai, Calcutta and Chennai. Together with its subsidiary Alliance Air Indian Airlines carrier a total of over 7.5 million passengers annually.