Bidding adieu to ‘Indian Airlines’

New Delhi: With barely a month to go for welcoming the new, merged incarnation of Air India on the domestic and international skies, time is inching slowly to bid farewell to Indian Airlines, one of the most visible, dominating and friendly brands in the civil aviation sector for the past five decades.
After the Government decision to merge the two public sector carriers — Air India and Indian Airlines — into a single entity, to be known by the brand name Air India from July 22, realisation is dawning gradually on the employees of Indian Airlines that they will lose the identity of the company that had cocooned them in job security and given their families bread and butter for decades.
What a turn of events it has been for the carrier as more than 50 years ago, it had taken eight airlines to merge and form the Indian Airlines that had inherited 99 aircraft at that time. The airlines along with Air India was set up after the Air Corporation Act was passed.
Though the first flight of Air India as the new entity is being scheduled for August 1 between Mumbai and New York by a brand new Boeing 777 decorated with the new logo, the flight schedules of the two airlines are likely to be unified only with the advent of the winter schedule. Till then the “IC” call sign of Indian Airlines is likely to remain operational,
22/06/07 Vinay Kumar/The Hindu

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Categories: Air India Jun 2007, Indian Jun 2007