The Beginnings

In 1952, the condition of all the airlines witnessed a general deterioration all over the world. To rescue the airline sector of the country, the Planning Commission of India recommended the merger of all the scheduled airlines into a single integrated corporation.

At first, the Government of India favoured the establishment of one single corporation to handle the air transport of the nation but later it revised its decision to establish two separate air corporations.

Air Corporation Act, 1953, gave monopoly power to Indian Airlines to operate on domestic scheduled services ruling out any other operator. Similarly, Air India International became the single Indian carrier to operate on international routes expect flights to some neighbouring countries which were given to Indian Airlines.

While Air India International did not see any major problems of organisation, personnel or morale, the route was not smooth for Indian Airlines as it was a difficult task to fit in eight varieties of separate managerial and supervisory staff into its unified cadres of management.

Also, these airlines had different scales of pay and conditions of services, so it was also a challenge to mould all these units into one single integrated organisation with uniform standards of operation, administration and of course uniform scale pay.

The Air Corporation Act was passed by Parliament in March 1953 nationalising all airlines and approved by the President of India on May 28th 1953. Air India International took over the International routes of the nation. Indian Airlines Corporation started operations in the Domestic routes. Both Airlines commenced operations from August 1,1953

More updates on the Beginnings will appear on the same page

The Epilogue

We are right in the throes of turning back the clock in Indian Civil Aviation. 

Air India is being sold to private bidders as the policy makers are of the firm opinion that running an Airline is not a Government's business. It was in the year 1953 that many small airlines were merged into two quasi government public sector entities - Indian Airlines Corporation catering the domestic routes and Air India International operating to foreign destinations. 

In the year 2007 both these companies amalgamated into one national carrier Air India Limited. Ever since the fortunes of the company declined to a point of no return and the Government desperately wanted to jettison the Airline to private hands to save tax payer's money. 

On the Airline Industry in India one is reminded of this famous quotation of Charles Dickens, the famous English novelist from his "A Tale of Two Cities" : 

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way” 

To put things in perspective elsewhere in the world "Deregulation" of the Airline Industry was first carried out in the United States of America between the years 1978 to 1986. Essentially this meant opening the skies for all Airlines to operate without any restrictions. 

Alfred E. Kahn is widely viewed as the father of Airline Deregulation in the United States. He said in an interview that "Instability is the price we pay for competition". Kahn authored a seminal book "Lessons from Deregulation Telecommunications and Airlines after the Crunch" in which he chronicled the history of Airline Deregulation in the U.S.A, from its inception and aftermath. 

We intend to chronicle the history of Civil Aviation in India between 1953 and now. This is the best time to look at history and fit the events in a larger map. Perhaps we can then learn the trends and the future trajectory of the Civil Aviation in India. 

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