Air Transport of India

1. J.R.D. Tata was the first person to make a solo flight from Mumbai to Karachi in 1931.

2. In 1935, the 'Tata Air Lines' started its operation between Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram and in 1937 between Mumbai and Delhi.

3. In 1953, all the private Airline companies were nationalised and Indian Airlines and Air India came into existence.

4. Air India administers international flights while Indian Airlines caters to the domestic circuit.

5. Indian Airlines is now known by the name of 'Indian'.

6. Vayudoot Limited started in 1981 as a private air carrier and later on it merged with Indian Airlines.

7. Pawan Hans Limited operates helicopter support services to oil sector, hill stations and remote areas.

8. A number of private airlines also operates is India. They are Jet Airways, Sahara, etc.

9. The Civil Aviation Centre in Fursatgarh near Allahabad provided, among other things, ground training to the pilots.

Airports in India

There are 12 International Airports in India:

• Begumpet Airport, Hyderabad


• Calicut International Airport, Calicut


• Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai


• Chennai International Airport, Chennai


• HAL Airport, Bangalore


• Goa Airport in Vasco da Gama city, Goa


• Lokpriya Gopinath Bordolio International Airport, Guwahati


• Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi


• Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata


• Rja Sansi International Airport, Amritsar


• Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, Ahmedabad


• Thiruvananathapuram International Airport, Thiruvananathapuram

The Indira Gandhi International Airport and the Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport handle more than half of the air traffic in South Asia. Besides these airports several other domestic airports are located in India.

In total, there are more than 334 civilian airports in India - 238 with paved runways and 108 with unpaved runways.