Indian Airlines: Fierce competition in domestic aviation industry takes its toll.
Prior to 1953, there were as many as seven private airlines operating in India. All of these were domestic airlines. Deccan Airways, Airways India, Bharat Airways, Himalayan Aviation, Kalinga Airlines, Indian National Airways and Air Services of India were doing the job till the need for the nationalization of aviation industry was felt by the government of India.
Government of India passed Air Corporations Act in 1953 for the nationalization of the aviation industry. All the private airlines operating on domestic routes were dissolved and Indian Airlines Corporation (IAC) was established. Following the British example, two separate airlines were started in India. While Air India was formed to look after international routes, Indian Airlines (IA) was meant for domestic flights.
IA thus was the first major domestic airline operating in India. The airline was started with an initial capital of Rs. 32 million in 1953. IAC’s fleet consisted of 99 aircrafts in the beginnings which were used by the private airlines in the past. This included three Douglas DC-4s, 74 Dakotas, 12 Vickers Vikings, and several other small aircrafts.
HS-748s, which were manufactured in India by HAL, under license from Hawker Siddelley of United Kingdom, were inducted into the fleet in 1960 followed by the induction of Fokker F27 Friendship aircrafts which were added to the fleet in 1961.
Jet aircrafts were inducted into the fleet of IAC in 1964. The first pure jet aircraft to be inducted in to the fleet was Sud Aviation Caravelle airliner. Boeing 737-200s followed suit in the early 1970s. Three Airbus A300s were inducted into the fleet in 1976.
IA dominated the Indian domestic aviation scene for decades till the things became different in the early 1990s when the era of liberalization started. Opening of the domestic skies once again for the private players by the Government of India had a serious impact on IA. Several new entrants to this field like Jet Airways, IndiGo, SpiceJet, Kingfisher, etc presented a tough competition to IA with their efficiency and cheap airfares. Indian Airlines tickets too became quite cheap in order to meet up to the competition but all the efforts to revive its past glory ended up in vain.
Domestic flights in India had several new companies fighting each other out in a fierce battle which saw drastic lowering of the airfares. IA could not withstand this competition and was officially merged into Air India on February 27, 2011.
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