With Air India recently being handed back to its founders, the Tata group on Friday took to Twitter to take us back in time when the Maharaja first graced the skies.
“Do you know about the connection between India’s first pilot’s licence and the first flight of Air India? The story goes back to #TDTY in 1929 (sic),” wrote the Tata Group.
The company was citing the legacy of JRD Tata, who gave wings to a nation with his love for aviation.
“On February 10, 1929, JRD ‘Jeh’ Tata earned the first commercial aviator's certificate in India, fulfilling a dream that he had nurtured since he was 15 and setting the stage for the much bigger dream of giving wings to the nation (sic),” wrote the group.
“Jeh not only set up India’s first airline -- Tata Air Service, which later became Air India -- but also went on to pilot its inaugural flight. On an October dawn in 1932, he soared into the sky from Karachi in a Puss Moth, towards Bombay at a 'dazzling 100 miles an hour' (sic),” it added.
Using the hashtag #wingsofchain, Tata Group wrote: “All he was armed with was a pair of goggles, his trusted slide rule that he always carried on flights, “a silent prayer”, and his little blue and gold aviator’s certificate that bore the Number 1 (sic).”
The company had a few days ago shared on social media that Air India was named via an opinion poll among Tata Sons employees over 75 years ago back in 1946.
The business conglomerate said it had initially chosen four names for the airline – Indian Airlines, Pan-Indian Airlines, Trans-Indian Airlines & Air-India.
"Back in 1946, when Tata Air Lines expanded from a division of Tata Sons into a company, we also had to name it. The choice for India’s first airline company came down to Indian Airlines, Pan-Indian Airlines, Trans-Indian Airlines and Air-India#AirIndiaOnBoard #WingsOfChange," Tata Group tweeted.
“But who made the final decision? Read this excerpt from the Tata Monthly Bulletin of 1946 to know. #AirIndiaOnBoard #WingsOfChange #ThisIsTata (sic),” it added.
On 27 January, Tatas took over control of Air India, it's subsidiary Air India Express as well as a 50% stake in joint venture AISATS.
Through a competitive bidding process, the government sold loss-making Air India to Talace for ₹18,000 crore. As part of the deal, Talace paid ₹2,700 crore in cash and took over ₹15,300 crore debt of the airline. The remaining debt and borrowings of Air India were transferred to AIAHL.
