On 15 October 1932 JRD Tata took off from Karachi with a load of air mail. The airline he was starting, Tata Air Services, is the origin of what is now Air India. Wikipedia's history of Air India records the flight, and Tata's own heritage archive tells the day in detail.

The flight

Tata's account says the single-engined de Havilland Puss Moth left Karachi's Drigh Road aerodrome at 6.30 am. It stopped at Ahmedabad, where it was refuelled, and Tata landed at Juhu, Bombay, at 1.50 pm. The Better India, writing in 2017, gives the mail as 25 kg of four-anna letters; Tata's archive puts the Bombay delivery at 55 pounds, which is about the same weight. About 8 pounds were left at Ahmedabad.

The flight had been planned for 15 September. Tata's account says it was put back a month because monsoon flooding had covered the Juhu airfield.

The onward leg

Within twenty minutes of Tata landing, according to the same account, the mail was moved to a second Puss Moth. Nevill Vintcent, a former Royal Air Force pilot and a friend of Tata, flew it on to Madras with 47 pounds of mail for Madras and 6 pounds for Bellary, where the aircraft stopped to refuel. Wikipedia's Air India article also says Vintcent flew the aircraft on to Madras.

One caution. Wikipedia's article on Tata himself says he flew from Karachi to Madras, and cites a newspaper. Tata's archive and the Air India article both describe two aircraft and two pilots, so that is the account I have followed.

The first year

Wikipedia says Tata won a mail-carrying contract from Imperial Airways in April 1932 and started with two Puss Moths. In its first year, it says, the airline flew about 260,000 km, carried 155 passengers and 9.72 tonnes of mail, and made a profit of 60,000 rupees. Those figures come from that one article, with no citation I could check, so treat them as approximate.

From Tata Airlines to Air India

Wikipedia says Tata Airlines became a public limited company named Air India on 29 July 1946. The Government of India took a majority stake in 1953 under the Air Corporations Act. On 27 January 2022, the same article says, the airline was officially handed back to the Tata Group.

On my screen

None of this was the 777's route, and I am not suggesting it was. A 777-300ER has no connection to a 1932 Puss Moth beyond the name on the tail. But it is the same airline's story, and it does show up on my screen.

On 27 September 2026 the BBBRadar desk unit caught an Air India Boeing 777-300ER, VT-ALS, twice. As AIC113 it was flying Delhi to Birmingham at 21,875 feet. Later that evening, as AIC118, it was flying Birmingham to Amritsar at 22,875 feet. The label shows the type, registration and route in plain text.

What I could not confirm

I could not find a source for the founding capital that I could open myself, so I have not given it. I also could not confirm the mail weights beyond Tata's own account and The Better India.

Sources

  • Tata Group, "JRD Tata: Song of the Clouds": https://www.tata.com/newsroom/heritage/jrd-tata-song-of-the-clouds
  • The Better India, "The Little-Known Story of the First Air India Flight in 1932", 23 March 2017: https://www.thebetterindia.com/92669/air-india-jrd-tata-airlines-karachi-bombay/
  • Wikipedia, "Air India": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_India
  • Wikipedia, "JRD Tata": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JRD_Tata
  • Radar catches: BBBRadar desk unit, 27 September 2026