India

Asia

18Airlines

5Profiled Airports

14With ICAO

14With Callsign

Aviation History

India's aviation history opens with a 1911 airmail flight often cited as the world's first officially sanctioned airmail service, followed by J.R.D. Tata's founding of Tata Airlines in 1932. The state nationalized the industry in 1953, splitting it into domestic and international carriers, and did not reopen the market to private airlines until the early 1990s. Liberalization spurred a wave of new carriers, including India's first low-cost airline in 2003 and IndiGo, now the market leader, in 2006. In a symbolic close of the circle, the Tata Group reacquired Air India from the government in 2022, and India has since become one of the world's fastest-growing aviation markets.

✦The 1911 Allahabad-Naini flight is regarded by many aviation historians as the world's first official airmail service, predating similar experiments elsewhere.

✦Vistara, a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, was merged into Air India in 2024 as part of the group's post-2022 consolidation.

✦India became one of the world's largest and fastest-growing domestic air travel markets in the 2010s and 2020s, driven by low-cost carriers.

1911

World's first official airmail flight

Henri Pequet flew mail across the Yamuna River from Allahabad to Naini, an event widely cited as the world's first officially sanctioned airmail flight.

1932

Tata Airlines founded

J.R.D. Tata, India's first licensed pilot, founded Tata Airlines and piloted its inaugural Karachi-to-Bombay mail and passenger route.

1946

Tata Airlines becomes Air India

Tata Airlines was reorganized into a public company and renamed Air India, which later became India's international flag carrier.

1953

Air Corporations Act nationalizes airlines

The government nationalized the industry, creating state-owned Indian Airlines for domestic routes and Air India for international service.

1994

Domestic aviation opens to private airlines

Repeal of the Air Corporations Act ended the state monopoly, allowing private carriers to operate scheduled domestic services again.

2003

Air Deccan launches

Air Deccan began operations as India's first low-cost carrier, pioneering budget domestic air travel.

2006

IndiGo begins operations

IndiGo launched as a low-cost carrier and went on to become India's largest airline by passengers and fleet size.

2007

Air India and Indian Airlines merge

The two state-owned carriers were merged under the Air India brand, consolidating domestic and international operations.

2022

Air India returns to the Tata Group

After a long divestment process, the government sold Air India back to Tata Sons, the group that had founded the airline in 1932.

Notable Carriers

Air India · IndiGo · SpiceJet · Vistara · Jet Airways (defunct) · Air India Express

General aviation history from encyclopedic and airline-industry sources; current airline market shares, fleet sizes, and merger details may shift and should be reverified for exact figures.

Aviation Firsts

Oldest Airport — contested

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport — Kolkata (1924): Site dates to the early 1900s; opened as Dum Dum Airport 21 Dec 1924. Its own article calls it 'one of the oldest airports in India' (not 'the oldest'). Today handles ~21.1M passengers/year. · CCU ↗ · Wikipedia ↗

Juhu Aerodrome — Mumbai (1928): Opened 1928 for general aviation/helicopters. Its own Wikipedia article explicitly states it was founded 'four years after Kolkata's airport opened' — conceding Kolkata is earlier. · Wikipedia ↗

Safdarjung Airport — Delhi (1929): Originally Willingdon Airfield, opened 1929; closed to public flying since 2002 (VVIP helicopter transit only). Its own article calls it 'India's second airport, after the Juhu Aerodrome' — directly contradicting Juhu's own admission that Kolkata predates it. · Wikipedia ↗

A genuine source inconsistency, not just a definitional dispute: Kolkata (1924) is earliest by date and still operating, and Juhu's own page acknowledges this, yet a separate Wikipedia article calls Juhu 'India's first airport.' Reported as-is rather than resolved.

Oldest Airline

Air India (1932): Founded 15 Oct 1932 as Tata Airlines by J.R.D. Tata; renamed Tata Air Services (1938), reverted, became the public company 'Air India' 29 Jul 1946; returned to Tata Group ownership 27 Jan 2022 after 69 years of government ownership. The earliest-founded major Indian carrier verified — not independently sourced as 'India's oldest airline' by superlative claim, and a competing lineage (Indian National Airways, 1933 → Indian Airlines 1953 → merged into Air India 2007) was not verified this session. · AI ↗ · Wikipedia ↗

First Foreign Ground Handler

Çelebi Ground Handling (Turkey): Won the contract in Nov 2009 to develop/operate Delhi (Indira Gandhi International Airport)'s brownfield cargo terminal via the JV Celebi Delhi Cargo Terminal Management India Pvt. Ltd.; operations began June 2010. Documents entry into cargo ground handling at one airport, not an explicit 'first foreign GH company in India overall' claim — flagged tentative. Note: Çelebi's clearance at Indian airports was reported revoked in a May 2025 security order; this does not change the historical 2009/2010 market-entry fact being described here. (best-documented candidate found — not source-confirmed as literally first.) · Wikipedia ↗