Indian Airways

Indian Airways The scheduled civil air transport in India commenced during 1929-30 when the British, French and the Dutch extended their services to and beyond India. The first internal air service was established between Karachi and Chennai via Mumbai in 1922. By the beginning of the Second World War, major cities like Karachi, Lahore, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai had scheduled air services operated by private companies. At the time of independence, there were four companies. By 1951, four more private companies were operating air services. The Air Transport Enquiry Committee set up in 1950 recom­mended the merger of these eight companies into a corporation. Under the Air Corporation Act, 1953, the Indian Airlines Corporation was set up to operate all internal civil air services and Air India International was constituted for managing international air transport.

The Government ended the monopoly of Indian Air­lines and Air India on the scheduled operations by repealing the Air Corporation Act, 1953. There are at present ten scheduled airlines operating on the domestic network rendering the passengers a wide choice of flights. Apart from this, more than 40 companies are holding non­scheduled operators permit. The policy on domestic air transport service was approved in April 1997 according to which barriers to entry and exit from this sector have been removed. Recently, two private scheduled airlines, Le., M/s Sahara Airlines and Jet Airways were permitted to operate on international sector.

The main trunk routes having high density of traffic are operated by Air Bus and Boeing aircraft. The remote areas are served by smaller aircraft. A third airline­Vayudoot-was incorporated as a private limited company in January 1981. The Pawan Hans Limited was set up in October 1985 to provide transport services for short dis­tances.

The activities of civil aviation fall under three broad areas-operational, infrastructural and regulator-cum-de­velopment. Domestic air services in the country are pro­vided by the Indian Airlines now renamed Indian and its subsidiary Alliance Air, and private airlines (scheduled and non-scheduled), while the international services are pro~ vided by Air India, and. other international airlines oper­ating in India. Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd. basically provides helicopter support services to the petrQleum sector and connects the remote and inaccessible areas of the (North-East).

It also provides air support services to several customers which include Government of Punjab, Government of Arunachal Pradesh, the Lakshadweep
Administration, Gas Authority of India Ltd. and, in addition, also caters to the helicopter requirements of the private sector.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation operates the civil airports in India.
The Civil Aviation Training Centre is at Allahabad. It comprises an aerodrome school and air traffic facilities. The Fire Service Training Centre is located in Kolkata. The Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Academy (IGRUA) is located at Fursatgunj (Uttar Pradesh). It provides training facilities to commercial pilots.

Infrastructural facilities are provided by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), which was formed on April 1, 1995 by merging the International Airports Authority of India and National Airports Authority. The AAI is respon­sible for providing safe, efficient air traffic services and aeronautical communication services for effective control of air traffic in the Indian air space. It controls and manages the entire Indian air space extending even beyond the territorial limits of the country, as accepted by the Inter­national Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).