HISTORY

Air-India is India's national flag carrier. Although air transport was born in India on February 18, 1911 when Henri Piquet, flying a Humber bi-plane, carried mail from Allahabad to Naini Junction, some six miles away, the scheduled services in India, in the real sense, began on October 15, 1932. It was on this day that J.R.D. Tata, the father of Civil Aviation in India and founder of Air-India, took off from Drigh Road Airport, Karachi, in a tiny, light single-engined de Havilland Puss Moth on his flight to Mumbai (then known as Bombay) via Ahmedabad. Tata Airlines Tata Airlines, as Air-India was then known, consisted of one Puss Moth, one Leopard Moth, one palm-thatched shed, one whole time pilot assisted by Tata and Vincent, one part-time engineer, two apprentice-mechanics and unlimited optimism. In 1933, the first full year of its operations, Tata Airlines flew 160,000 miles, carried 155 passengers and 10.71 tonnes of mail. Tata Airlines was converted into a Public Company under the name of Air-India in August 1946. Going Global By the beginning of 1947, Air-India turned its attention to the international scene. Towards the end of the year, an agreement was reached with the Government of India for the formation of Air-India International Limited to operate international services. At Air-India's request, the Government agreed to limit their capital participation to 49 per cent, subject to an option to acquire, at any time, a further two per cent from Air-India. Air-India International, which was registered on March 8, 1948, inaugurated its international services on June 8, 1948, with a weekly flight from Mumbai to London via Cairo and Geneva with a Lockheed Constellation aircraft.

Nationalization Government decided to nationalize the air transport industry and accordingly two autonomous Corporations were created on August 1, 1953. Indian Airlines was formed with the merger of eight domestic airlines to operate domestic services, while Air-India International was established to operate the overseas services. The word 'International' was dropped in 1962. Effective March 1, 1994, the airline has been functioning as Air-India Limited. From a total of three stations served at the time of nationalization, Air-India's worldwide network today covers 44 destinations by operating services with its own aircraft and through code-shared flights.

A corporate identity is the commercial visual image that a company projects to its public. It helps in achieving a cohesive and consistent image of the company worldwide. Air-India believes that this visual image must be simple, coherent and most importantly, it must be an honest representation of the ideals they stand for.

After the formation of Air-India International in 1948, four Lockheed Constellations were ordered to commence international operations. The management began casting about for a symbol that would denote speed and simultaneously have universal appeal. Sagittarius, the archer, is the ninth sign of the Zodiac. The Greeks represented this constellation in the act of shooting an arrow. As it symbolizes movement and speed, the Centaur, a stylized version of Sagittarius, was selected as Air-India's logo. The power of the symbol is to influence and people can never be under-estimated for symbols have power to play upon the emotions, memories and sensitiveness. The Centaur is symbolic of the airline and stands out as a distinct and sole representative of the standards Air-India has set for itself.