Mumbai: As per a Mumbai Mirror report, Air India yesterday completed 68 years of serving the international air passenger market. The historic 24-hour trip from Mumbai to London by the Malabar Princess, a 40 seater Lockheed L-749 Constellation, was marked by refuelling stops at Cairo and Geneva. The propeller-driven four-engine aircraft, registered as VT-CQS, was piloted by Captain K R Guzdar on its maiden voyage. The aircraft carried 35 passengers including luminaries such as Maharaja Duleepsinhji, who was looking forward to watch the Ashes, Jam Saheb of Nawanagar, the Rajpramukh of Saurashtra, JRD Tata, the father of Indian aviation and Indian cyclists H B Malcolm and R R Noble, who were to represent India at the Olympic Games at Wembley.
Jitendra Bhargava, former Executive Director, Air India and author of The Descent of Air India, recalled the magnificence of the journey. “This aircraft was not capable of flying non-stop over a long distance.Constellations could only fly 4,800 kilometres at one go. Airplanes today can fly 13,340 kilometres. Thus the flight had to make technical halts for refueling,” said, Bhargav. “An advertisement in the newspapers that day announced that one could fly to London in the Malabar Princess for INR 1,720. Today, a one way trip to London (economy class) costs about INR 24,000 and takes nine hours and thirty minutes in a Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
10/06/16 TravelBizMonitor
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Jitendra Bhargava, former Executive Director, Air India and author of The Descent of Air India, recalled the magnificence of the journey. “This aircraft was not capable of flying non-stop over a long distance.Constellations could only fly 4,800 kilometres at one go. Airplanes today can fly 13,340 kilometres. Thus the flight had to make technical halts for refueling,” said, Bhargav. “An advertisement in the newspapers that day announced that one could fly to London in the Malabar Princess for INR 1,720. Today, a one way trip to London (economy class) costs about INR 24,000 and takes nine hours and thirty minutes in a Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
10/06/16 TravelBizMonitor
