A Boeing 737-200 aircraft that lay abandoned at Kolkata airport for more than 13 years finally rolled out of the premises on November 14, marking the latest step in the airport’s ongoing effort to clear long-defunct planes. The 43-year-old aircraft, left idle on the southeastern edge of the airport since 2012, was transported on a tractor-trailer to Bengaluru, where it will now be used to train maintenance engineers. This is the 14th defunct aircraft cleared from Kolkata airport in the past five years, and the space it occupied will soon house one of two new hangars proposed at the facility.
While such disposals are usually routine, this case stood out for two unusual reasons. First, Air India, the airline that owned the aircraft, did not even know the plane existed. Second, this was the only retired Air India aircraft sold with its Pratt & Whitney engines still intact. All nine other defunct Air India aircraft previously removed from the airport had been stripped of their engines before being sold.
Air India Didn't Know They Owned The Aircraft
In an internal note to employees, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson admitted that the airline had completely lost track of the aircraft until alerted by Kolkata airport officials. Wilson wrote: “Though disposal of an old aircraft is not unusual, this one is, for it's an aircraft that we didn't even know we owned until recently!” According to him, the aircraft had slipped off company records during the airline’s privatisation process three years ago, effectively vanishing from institutional memory, as reported by the Times of India.
The aircraft, registered as VT-EHH, originally joined the Indian Airlines fleet in September 1982. It was leased to Alliance Air in 1998 before returning to Indian Airlines in 2007 to serve as a cargo aircraft. Following the merger of Indian Airlines with Air India later that year, the plane was transferred to Air India and briefly used by India Post. It was finally decommissioned in 2012 and remained forgotten on the airfield ever since.
Kolkata airport recovered nearly Rs 1 crore in parking fees from Air India for the aircraft’s 13-year stay. While this particular plane has gone to Bangalore International Airport Ltd for engineering training, several other retired aircraft have found unusual second lives; many fuselages were purchased by private firms and converted into aviation-themed restaurants.
Among the 14 removed aircraft was a historically significant Douglas DC-3 Dakota once flown by former Odisha Chief Minister Biju Patnaik during his famous 1947 mission to rescue Indonesian leaders from Dutch forces. That aircraft has since been restored and displayed at Bhubaneswar airport. Only two defunct ATR aircraft belonging to Alliance Air now remain at Kolkata airport.
