If the induction of B787 dreamliner aircraft in the fleet on September 8, 2012 marked a new chapter in Air India’s annals, it also signalled the end of a rich tradition hitherto followed by Air India. Air India’s practice of over 70 years of christening its aircraft has for the first time not been pursued for B 787 dreamliner aircraft by the management of merged Air India, already being accused of being dominated by the personnel of erstwhile Indian Airlines, which never had the system of naming the aircraft.
Former Executive Director of Air India opens up
Air India had introduced the concept of christening aircraft right from the time of induction of Lockheed 749 Constellation aircraft in the 1940s. The themes were selected for each series of aircraft from the various facets of India’s history thus making the national carrier really project the heritage of the country globally.
If the B749 Constellation aircraft were named as Mughal Princess, Malabar Princess, with which the inaugural international flight to London was launched via Cairo and Geneva on June 8, 1948, and Maratha Princess, the Lockheed 1049 Super Constellation aircraft, that followed in the 1950s were named as Rani of Jhansi, Rani of Chittor, Flying Rani, Rani of Nilgiris, Rani of Bijapur, Rani of Madurai, etc. When Air India entered the jet aircraft age in the 1960s with the induction of Boeing 707s, it retained the tradition by naming the fleet after mountain peaks – Everest, Annapurna, Kanchenjunga, Nanga Parbat, etc.
The Jumbo B 777-200 aircraft that were introduced in the fleet in the early 1970s were named after Emperors – Ashoka, Shahjahan, Rajendrachola, Vikramaditya, Akbar, Chandragupta, Kanishka, Samudragupta, Harshavardhan, etc.
Later, in the 1980s when Air India inducted Airbus 310s, it named the aircraft after various major rivers of India – Ganga, Godavari, Yamuna, Saraswati, Tista, Sabarmati, Krishna and Narmada. The six B 747-400 aircraft added in the fleet between 1993-96, were christened after places of tourist interest viz. Konark, Tanjore, Khajuraho, Ajanta, Agra and Velha Goa. Even when the B777 aircraft, part of the same order as B787s, joined the fleet in July 2007, the tradition was maintained. The aircraft were named in alphabetical order after the States of India viz Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar and so forth. An exception was, however, made for B737-800 aircraft acquired for Air India Express prior to B777s, because the tail of the aircraft had two visuals of various cultural and tourism aspects of the country emblazoned on either side.
While doing away with the decades old tradition certainly cannot be attributed to the bankrupt state of finances of Air India because naming does not cost a single rupee, it can, however, either be attributed to bankruptcy of creativity or wilful neglect of a tradition only because it was part of Air India’s heritage, laments an old Air India executive.
