Civil Aviation in India: Historical Perspective

After watching the birds fly, man's aspiration changed and he wanted to touch the sky. This curiosity led him to invent a new mode of transportation i.e., fly in air, which is now-a-days most preferred mode of transportation. Commercial aviation in India began on February 18, 1911, but the scheduled services in India in the real sense, began on October 15, 1932. On 28th May 1953, consequent to the coming into force of the Air Corporations Act, 1953, the government of India nationalised the airlines industry. In accordance with this Act the two air corporations, viz Indian Airlines corporations and Air India were established. In 1994, the wheel had turned a full circle as the Air Corporation Act, 1953 was repealed with effect from March 1, 1994 and that ended the monopoly of the corporations on scheduled air transport services. Air transport in India is now open to any carrier who fulfils the statutory requirements for operation of scheduled services. Many private airlines commenced operations, of these, Jet Airways, Sahara Airlines, Kingfisher Airlines, Spice Jet, Indigo, Go Air which are the integral part of Indian aviation industry.