The Story Of How Tata Airlines Became Air India

With Tata Sons winning the bid for acquiring national carrier Air India, the airlines has come a full circle. It's a homecoming for the airline and it begins another chapter under the custodianship of Tata Sons.

In its long history, Air India has witnessed both ends of the spectrum - the glorious days and the undistinguished moments. In addition, it has also experienced two different systems of ownership - private and government.

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Air India, formerly Air-India, was the brainchild of legendary industrialist and philanthropist JRD Tata, who was also India¡¯s first licensed pilot. His fascination quickly turned into a plan to form India¡¯s first commercial airline.

Air India was established in 1932, and its first scheduled service was inaugurated in the same year, flying mail on some routes for then-Imperial Airways.

During the first decade of its operations, the airline slowly but steadily made enormous progress. In 1938, the airline was renamed Tata Airlines and expanded internationally for the first time. The carrier added Colombo, Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) to its route map in addition to the dozen or so destinations in India.

1947: Nationalisation

However, it all changed in 1947. As India attained independence, nationalisation became a hot topic of debate. The government went ahead with its plans to nationalise many companies, which incidentally involved Tata Airlines, too.

JRD Tata was completely against the idea of nationalisation. He was of the view that the government of India had no experience in running an airline company, and nationalisation would mean bureaucracy and lethargy, a decline in employee morale and a fall in passenger services.

From Tata Airlines to Air India

His protests fell on deaf ears as the government took a 49% stake in the carrier, and renamed it Air India.

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In 1952, things took a dramatic turn. JRD Tata was left miffed after the government nationalized Air India (and several other carriers) and took it out of Tata¡¯s control.

JRD expressed his anguish that the government had intentionally treated the Tatas shabbily, and that it was a planned conspiracy to suppress private civil aviation, particularly the Tatas¡¯ air services. Nehru reassured him of no such intentions.

To employ his expertise, the government invited JRD to lead Air India and Indian Airlines as chairman. After protracted conversations at Tata Sons, JRD accepted the chairmanship of Air India and a directorship on the board of Indian Airlines.

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JRD would serve on both positions until 1978. His position came under threat after an Air India flight plunged into the sea off the coast of Bombay, killing all 213 passengers and the crew onboard.

One of the greatest air tragedies of its time, the fatal fall was attributed to pilot error. A month later, the Prime Minister Morarji Desai-led government dropped JRD from the chairmanship of Air India and the directorship of Indian Airlines.

However, in 1980, he was reappointed on the board of both airlines, by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, though not as chairman. He continued to serve on the boards till 1986, the year in which Ratan Tata was appointed as chairman of Air India by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

In the concluding decade of JRD¡¯s association with his favourite company ¨C Air India - he continued to serve with great distinction.