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Indian Airlines or Indian (Hindi: इंडियन एयरलाइंस or इंडियन) is an airline based in Delhi, India and focuses primarily on domestic routes, along with several international services to neighbouring countries in Asia. Indian Airlines is state-owned, and is administered by the Ministry of Civil Aviation. It is one of the two flag carriers of India, the other being Air India. Its main bases are Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport, Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Chennai's Anna International Airport and Kolkata's Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport.

Though the company that owns and operates the airline continues to be named Indian Airlines Limited, on 7 December 2005, the airline was rebranded as Indian or इंडियन for advertising purposes as a part of a program to revamp its image in preparation for an initial public offering (IPO). The airline operates closely with Air India, India's national carrier. Alliance Air, a fully-owned subsidiary of Indian Airlines, was renamed Air India Regional.

In February 2007, the Government of India approved plans to merge Indian Airlines with Air India. In May 2007, India's Ministry of Civil Aviation announced that Air India Limited (AI), India's national flag carrier and Indian Airlines Limited (IA), the government owned domestic airline, would merge with effect from July 15, 2007. The new airline formed by the merger was to be called "Air India", and would operate in both the domestic and international sectors. The proposal to merge AI and IA had been first mooted in the 1990s. In February 1999, a Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport and Tourism had recommended the merger of AI and IA in its report on the 'Functioning of Air India'. It will be India's largest airline after the merger, with 100 aircraft, along with 59 orders and 89 destinations(including 50 domestic destinations and 39 international routes), excluding its and Air India's subsidiaries.

History

The airline is set up under the Air Corporations Act, 1953 with an initial capital of Rs. 32 million 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 British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and British European Airways (BEA). Air India took over international routes and Indian Airlines Corporation (IAC) took over the domestic and regional routes.

Seven former freedom domestic airlines, Deccan Airways, Airways India, Bharat Airways, Himalayan Aviation, Kalinga Airlines, Indian National Airways and Air Services of India, were merged to form the new domestic national carrier. Indian Airlines Corporation inherited a fleet of 99 aircraft including 74 Douglas DC-3 Dakotas, 12 Vickers Vikings, 3 Douglas DC-4s and various smaller types from the seven airlines that made it up.

Vickers Viscounts were introduced in 1957 with Fokker F27 Friendships being delivered from 1961. The 1960s also saw Hawker Siddeley HS 748s, manufactured in India by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, join the fleet.

The jet age began for IAC with the introduction of the pure-jet Sud Aviation Caravelle airliner in 1964, followed by Boeing 737-200s in the early 1970s. April 1976 saw the first three Airbus A300 wide-body jets being introduced. The regional airline, Vayudoot, which had been established in 1981, was later reintegrated.

By 1990, Airbus A320s were introduced. The economic liberalisation process initiated by the Government of India in the early 1990s ended Indian Airlines' dominance of India's domestic air transport industry. Indian Airlines faced tough competition from Jet Airways, Air Sahara (now Jet Lite), East-West Airlines and ModiLuft. As of 2005, Indian Airlines was the second largest airline in India after Jet Airways while Air Sahara controlled 17% of the Indian aviation industry.

East-West Airlines and ModiLuft discontinued flight operations but the entry of several low-cost airlines in India, such as Air Deccan, SpiceJet and others like Kingfisher Airlines continue to give competition in its market, forcing Indian to cut down air-fares. However, as of 2006, Indian Airlines was still a profit making airline.

Indian Airlines Limited is wholly owned by the Government of India through a holding company and has 19,300 employees as of March 2007. 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 Airlines carries a total of over 7.5 million passengers annually.

On 22 February 2007, the Group of Ministers (GoM) approved the merger of state-owned carriers, Air India and Indian Airlines. Operating under the name Air India, the two airlines formally became one entity on 15 July 2007 upon receiving the new Boeing 777-200LR with the new livery of the merged airline. The new airline's headquarters will remain in Mumbai, and will have a fleet of over 130 aircraft.

In December 2007, Air India was invited to join the Star Alliance. Since Indian Airlines is in the midst of merging with Air India, it too will effectively be a member.

Services

Indian serves its customers through inbound call centres based at Delhi and outbound call centers at major metropolitan areas. Accessible through a toll free number from all parts of the country, arrival-departure information, reservations, promotional schemes, telephone check-in and booking (Dial-a-Ticket) are a few of the services rendered to fliers and travel agents.

Destinations

Code Share

• Chennai - Colombo operated by SriLankan Airlines
• Kolkata - Dhaka operated by GMG Airlines
• Delhi - Tashkent operated by Uzbekistan Airways

Fleet

Indian Airlines operates an all-Airbus fleet consisting of the Airbus A320 family :

^{As of March 2009 the average age of Indian Airlines Fleet is 12.58 years.}

Livery

The aircraft livery used while the company was called Indian Airlines was one of the longest in terms of time. Its aircraft were mainly white. The belly was in light metallic grey. Above the windows, "Indian Airlines" was written in English on one side and Hindi on other. 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 to Indian, the company's aircraft was sporting a new look inspired by the Sun Temple at Konark in Orissa. The tail of their aircraft had a partial blue wheel since practically 3/4 of the remainder 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 livery, which was sent to Boeing in Seattle to repaint all the new fleet coming into the new Air India. The old fleets of Air India and Indian Airlines will also slowly be painted in the new livery.

Incidents and accidents

• 15 November 1993: Indian Airlines Flight 440 an Airbus A300B2-101 (registered VT-EDV) executed a missed approach at Hyderabad’s Begumpet Airport due to poor visibility, but the flaps 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 aircraft running out of fuel on the way. The aircraft force-landed in a paddy field and was damaged beyond repair.There were no Fatalities on board.

• 24 December 1999: Indian Airlines Flight 814 an Airbus A300B2-101 (registered VT-EDW) which had just taken off from Kathmandu, Nepal to Delhi, was hijacked. The plane flew around different points in the Subcontinent and finally landed in Kandahar, Afghanistan, as officials of the