Indian Union has acquired an important place in civil aviation among the nations of the world. With its vast distances and favourable climate throughout, India provides an ideal field for air transport.
Indian Union has four airports at Mumbai (Santa Cruz and Sahar), Kolkata, (Netaji Subhash Air Port), Chennai (Kamraj Airport) and Delhi (Indira Gandhi International Airport and Domestic airport) maintained on international standards by the International Airport Authority, Lucknow, Nagpur, Patna, Visakhapatnam, Varanasi, Panaji, Jammu, Srinagar Pune, Aurangabad, Bhopal are other important airports. In all there are 85 aerodromes.
The most important feature of aviation in India is the night air mail services to Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. Nagpur is the meeting place for the exchange of mails. Nationalisation of air services had been effected in August, 1953, when all the eight privately owned airlines were taken over.
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There are two Corporations: the Air India (A.I.) to operate long distance international air services and the Indian Airlines (I.A.) for domestic and short international services such as Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Thailand, Maldives Myanmar, Middle East etc.
Both the airlines, Air India and Indian Airlines, have augmented their fleet; the former by the purchase of number of Jumbo Jets and latter by acquiring Air Bus 300 (wide bodied) and Airbus 320, Boeing 737. All has also finalized plan for further expansion.
Vayudoot:
A third level feeder air service connecting important outlying stations with the stations on Indian Airlines route was inaugurated in 1981. It acquired Dornier aircrafts from Germany for operations on the Delhi-Ludhiana and other lucrative routes. The Vayudoot, however, accumulated huge losses and was closed down.
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The Pawan Hans Ltd was incorporated on Oct 15, 1985 as a government company to provide helicopter based air transport services to meet the requirements of the petroleum sector, to operate services in inaccessible areas and hilly terrains, to operate tourist charters and to provide intra city transport service. Several foreign airlines have air services in the Indian Union.
British Airways:
It flies a number of flights every week from Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bombay, to London, Kuwait etc.
Air France:
Flies from Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai to Paris.
Royal Dutch Airlines (K.L.M.):
Most of the Airlines operate flights from Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata to their respective main stations.
Pan-American World Airways:
PIA. Pakistan International Airlines:
Lufthansa:
German Airlines
Quantas:
Australian Airlines
Cathay Pacific:
Hong Kong
Garuda:
Indonesian Airlines
J.A.L:
Japan Airlines
Aeroflot:
Russian Airlines
Swissair:
Switzerland Airlines
S.I.A:
Singapore International Airlines
