A retrospective of Air India’s historic, first international flight on its 75th anniversary

Historic images from Air India's first international flight (@TataCompanies/Twitter)

India had almost as many domestic airlines at the time of Independence as it has today. While Air India, driven by JRD Tata’s passion for flying, was a formidable domestic player then, promoters of most other airlines had entered the aviation industry solely due to commercial considerations, not passion.

The contributory factors being the availability of a large number of Dakota aircraft from American disposals, post-World War II, at virtually throwaway prices and hope of securing route licences under the government’s scheme in pre-Independent India. This resulted in formation of too many airline companies, mostly by promoters, who were wholly ignorant of the facts and requirements of air transport.

This became increasingly obvious when only JRD Tata, from amongst the promoters of domestic airlines, with his vision to launch an international airline, began seeking government’s approval soon after Independence. JRD Tata had to visit Delhi multiple times from Mumbai. This included visits when he piloted his own Expeditor aircraft to have meetings with bureaucrats in the capital, but mainly the prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Accompanied by Sir Gurunath Bewoor, the then Resident Director of Tata Sons in Delhi and assisted by JD Chokshi, Director Legal, Tata Sons and Vice Chairman of Tata Airlines, the hectic negotiations culminated in an agreement between Tata Sons and the Government of India. It was redeeming to see a decision of this magnitude within a couple of months and not years.

Majority control with Tatas

The agreement provided for Tatas owning 51 percent of the new international airline and the government 49 percent. The Tatas were to have control of the management of the airline. (One can’t imagine the fate of Air India had the bureaucrats or politicians of the day behaved like their counterparts of today and insisted on management control with the government.)

This was preceded by Tata Airlines converting into a public company in 1946 and renaming of the airline as Air India Limited. Two years later, to introduce international services it was renamed once again as Air India International Limited.

It was on June 8, 1948 - exactly 75 years ago - that the inaugural flight from Mumbai (then Bombay) to London via Cairo and Geneva, took off amidst great fanfare with Captain K R Guzdar in command and 35 passengers on board. The iconic weekly flight operated with Lockheed Constellation 749A aircraft, a 40 seater plane, named Malabar Princess, and landed in London on June 10, 1948. For the second leg of the journey from Cairo, Captain DK Jatar was in command.

The flight time then was almost four times of what it takes today because an aircraft of that era could do only 4,800 km non-stop as opposed to over 15,000 km non-stop today. The flight, therefore, had to make technical halts at Cairo and Geneva for refuelling. The operating crew, besides the two pilots, then comprised of a Radio Officer, a Flight Engineer, and a Navigator.

Rs 1720 fare to London

A small two column x 15 cm, non-graphic advertisement in The Times of India’s June 3, 1948 edition had the airlines’ mascot, the Maharaja, bowing to welcome passengers. The advertisement read: “Fly with me to London via Cairo and Geneva every Tuesday in a beautiful constellation for Rs. 1,720.”

The passengers

The list of passengers comprised of the crème de la crème of society - Maharaja Duleepsinhji, who was visiting London to see the England-Australia Test match; Mr and Mrs Keki Mody; Lt. Colonel W. Grey, formerly of the Government of India political department; Bhatti Gulam Mohamed; Narottam and Sulochana Lalbhai; HR Stimson; Dr Eric Streiff; Hans Balthasar Reinhard; Dhunjibhoy Noshir; Mr and Mrs Fazel A. Fazelbhoy; Salim Gulamally Bhimanee; Sinha Govindjee; Venkatachalam Iyer; Neville Wadia; LV Malkani; GS Patell; NK Patel; PS Jayasinge; Charles CM Broughton; CRK Rao; CR Rao; Rosemary Southorn; JI Williams and Sardar Singh. Also on board were HB Malcolm and RR Noble, Indian cyclists, who were to represent India at the London Olympic Games at Wembley.

JRD Tata, who too was on board the flight with his wife, carried messages of greeting and goodwill from Jawaharlal Nehru to the prime ministers of Britain and Egypt and the president of the Swiss Republic - the countries where the flight was to touchdown. He also took with him similar messages from Rafi Ahmed Kidwai, the then communications minister of India (civil aviation then was part of Communications Ministry) to his counterparts in these nations.

VK Krishna Menon, then High Commissioner for India in the UK; and Sir Fredrick James, then Managing Director, Tata Ltd, London were present at the Heathrow airport to welcome the passengers.

A commemorative stamp

An indication of how this achievement of Air India going international was perceived was evident when the Post & Telegraph department released a commemorative postage stamp with words “First Flight 8th June 1948” and “Air India International” emblazoned on it.

While one is not privy to how the current management of Air India is planning to commemorate the 75th anniversary but while working to celebrate the 50th anniversary in 1998 we were looking for earliest visuals of Air India aircraft and I was advised to contact the Films Division office in Mumbai. I was told that they were bound to have covered the event of inaugural flight for their weekly news round-up that it used to make for being screened in cinema halls before the start of feature films. We did contact and purchase the clip for a nominal fee to be screened at the celebratory function.

Likewise, we got a glimpse of how the media had covered the event by contacting The Times of India and procuring a digital copy of June 9, 1948 edition, which had an elaborate report running into two pages, including the names of passengers on the flight.

On the 75th anniversary today let us salute JRD Tata for his vision that not only heralded a new and glorious chapter in the annals of country’s civil aviation history but also gave the country a head-start. The significance of this feat can be best understood if one realises that not many countries at that time had an international airline of their own and India was accomplishing this in less than a year of attaining Independence - all due to vision, passion, indomitable spirit of one individual - Bharat Ratna JRD Tata.

(Jitender Bhargava is former executive director of Air India and author of ‘The Descent of Air India’)