Indian Airlines
| File:Indian Logo.gif | |||||||
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| Founded | 1953 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hubs | Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport Indira Gandhi International Airport | ||||||
| Focus cities | Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport HAL Airport Chennai International Airport | ||||||
| Frequent-flyer program | Flying Returns | ||||||
| Fleet size | 56 | ||||||
| Destinations | 56 | ||||||
| Parent company | Indian | ||||||
| Headquarters | New Delhi | ||||||
| Website | http://www.indian-airlines.nic.in | ||||||
Indian (formerly Indian Airlines Hindi: इंडियन एयरलाइन्स) is India's state owned primarily domestic airline, under the federal Union Ministry of Civil Aviation and based in New Delhi. Its main bases are Begumpet Airport, Hyderabad, Chennai International Airport, Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata and Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi.
The company was formery known as Indian Airlines. The company was rebranded as Indian as a part of a program to rewamp the company image in preparation for an IPO [1]. Alliance Air is a fully-owned subsidary of Indian.
History
The airline was set up on June 15, 1953 and started operations on 1 August 1953. It was established 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 the United Kingdom with BOAC and BEA. Air India took over international routes and Indian Corporation took over the domestic and regional routes.
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 Corporation inherited a large fleet of 74 Douglas DC-3 Dakotas, 12 Vickers Vikings, 3 Douglas DC-4s and various smaller types from the 8 airlines that made it up. Vickers 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 Sud Aviation Caravelle airliner in 1964. The 1960s also saw Hawker Siddeley 748s, 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.
The airline is about to undergo restructuring of its organisation, management and finances, with a view to issuing an initial public offering in 2006. It has recently been renamed to 'indian'. The airlines new logo is said to be contemporary graphic representation wheel of Sun temple in Konark.
Services
Indian flies to 64 domestic and 16 international destinations offering 35,000 seats per day and is India's largest airline. It operates the following services (at January 2005):
- Domestic scheduled destinations: Agartala, Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Aurangabad, Bagdogra, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, New Delhi, Dibrugarh, Gaya, Goa, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Imphal, Jaipur, Jammu, Kochi, Kolkata, Kozhikode, Leh, Lucknow, Madurai, Mumbai, Nagpur, Patna, Port Blair, Pune, Puttaparthi, Raipur, Ranchi, Srinagar, Thiruvananthapuram, Tiruchirapalli, Tirupati, Vadodara and Varanasi.
- International scheduled destinations:
- West Asia
It is fully owned by the Government of India and employs around 19,600 employees (at January 2005). Its annual turn-over, together with that of its subsidiary Alliance Air, is well over Rs.4000 crores (around US$ 1 billion). Together with its subsidiary Alliance Air, Indian carries a total of over 7.5 million passengers annually.
Incidents and Accidents
- There have been at least 12 fatal events in the history of Indian. [2]
- On Christmas Eve, December 24, 1999: Indian Flight 814, which had just taken off from Kathmandu, Nepal to Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, India was hijacked. The plane flew around different points in South Asia and Southwest Asia as officials of the government of India and the Taliban negotiated. One passenger was killed and some were released. On December 31, 1999, the rest of the hostages on Flight 814 were freed.
- 29 August 1970; Indian F27; near Silchar, India: The aircraft crashed into high ground shortly after takeoff. All five crew members and 34 passengers were killed.
- 9 December 1971; Indian HS748; near Chinnamanur, India: The aircraft was on descent into Madurai when it crashed into high ground about 50 miles (80 km) from the airport. The event occurred in daylight and reduced visibility. All four crew members and 17 passengers were killed.
- 11 August 1972; Indian F27; New Delhi, India: The aircraft lost altitude and crashed after abandoning a landing attempt. All four crew members and 14 passengers were killed.
- 31 May 1973; Indian 737-200; near New Dehli, India: The aircraft crashed and caught fire during landing. The crash killed five of the seven crew members and 43 of the 58 passengers.
- 12 October 1976; Indian Caravelle; Bombay, India: The right engine caught fire shortly after takeoff and the crew elected to return. Fuel flow to the engine was not stopped and the fire spread through the fuselage and led to hydraulic system failure and a loss of aircraft control shortly before landing. All six crew members and 89 passengers were killed.
- 4 August 1979; Indian HS748; near Bombay, India: The aircraft was approaching the airport at night and in poor weather when it collided with high ground about six miles (10 km) from the airport All four crew members and 41 passengers were killed.
- 10 May 1980; Indian 737-200; near Rampur Hat, India: The aircraft experienced severe en route turbulence. Two of the 132 passengers were killed.
- 19 October 1988; Indian 737-200; Ahmedabad, India: The aircraft hit an electric mast five miles (eight km)out on approach in poor visibility. All six crew members and 124 of 129 passengers were killed.
- 14 February 1990; Indian A320; Bangalore, India: Controlled flight into terrain during approach. Aircraft hit about 400 meters short of the runway. Four of the seven crew members and 88 of the 139 passengers were killed.
- 16 August 1991; Indian 737-200; near Imphal, India: The aircraft hit high ground during descent about 30 km from the airport. All six crew members and 63 passengers were killed.
- 26 April 1993; Indian 737-200; Aurangabad, India: The flight crew initiated their liftoff late and the aircraft struck a large vehicle on a road just outside the airport. The vehicle strike damaged one engine and the aircraft later hit power lines and crashed. Four of the six crew members and 52 of the 112 passengers were killed. The administrators of the airport were also cited for failing to regulate traffic on that same road.
Fleet
The Indian fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of December 2005):
- 3 Airbus A300B4
- 45 Airbus A320-200
- 3 Airbus A319
- 2 Boeing 737-200
- 2 Dornier 228
- 4 ATR 42
Indian has recently ordered 43 Airbus jets comprising of:
- 19 Airbus A319
- 4 Airbus A320
- 20 Airbus A321
These orders will start arriving from the middle of 2006 and will go until 2007. Indian has planned many new destinations to increase its market. The ageing Boeing fleet will be converted to freighters. The airline is also planning to spruce up for competition in the Persian Gulf Arab States sector, which accounts for 12% of its revenues. It is in the process of negotiations for widebody aircrafts with Airbus and Boeing. It also plans to introduce flights to Europe and the USA.
Livery
Indian 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" 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 aircraft, the logo is also painted on the engines over its bare metal color.
As of 7 December 2005, Indian's aircraft are sporting a new look inspired from the Konark sun temple in Orissa.(See picture above)
External links
References
- Airline Codes Website
- Flight International, 5-11 April 2005