Flight Covers

In July 1932 Aviation Department of Tata Sons Ltd. was established. It begun operations with the first Karachi Madras (via Ahmedabad, Bombay and Bellary) mail service to connect with Imperial Airways' London Karachi services. The first flight on October 15, 1932 was operated by a De Havilland Puss Moth VT-ADN flown by J R D Tata, pioneer aviator and industrial tycoon, from Karachi to Bombay and by Nevill Vincent from Bombay to Madras arriving there on October 16.

The Aviation Department of Tata Sons Ltd. became Tata Airlines in 1938. Tata Air Lines converted into a public company and was renamed Air India Limited. In 1948, 49% of the airline was acquired by the Government of India, and a new entity Air India International was incorporated as designated flag carrier. This was taken over by the Government of India and nationalized on August 1, 1953 becoming India's exclusive airline for external services.

**Air India First Flights**
1948 Jun 8 Bombay London via Cairo, Geneva Constellation	1950 Jan 21 Bombay Nairobi via Aden	1950 Oct 17 Calcutta London	1954 Jun 19 Bombay London Super Constellation	1954 Jul 16 Bombay Singapore via Madras
1954 Aug 14 Bombay Hong Kong Via Calcutta, Bangkok	1955 May 7 Bombay Tokyo via Calcutta, Bangkok, Hong Kong	1955 Jul 2 Bombay London via Cairo First Class Express	1956 Oct 5 Bombay Sydney Via Singapore, Darwin	1958 Aug 14 Delhi Moscow
1958 Oct 11 Bombay Jakarta Via Madras, Singapore	1960 Apr 19 Bombay London Boeing 707	1960 May 14 Bombay New York		1960 Jun 9 Calcutta New York via Bombay, Cairo, Frankfurt, Rome, London
		1960 Jun 29 Bombay Prague	1960 Oct 4 Bombay Bahrain Via Karachi	1960 Oct 4 Bombay Kuwait Via Karachi, Bahrain
1961 Jan 25 Bombay Tokyo Boeing 707		1961 May 4 Bombay Nairobi Boeing 707		1961 May 23 Vienna Bombay via Rome
1962 Apr 5 Madras Singapore Comet 4	1962 Apr 6 Bombay Moscow Boeing 707		1962 May 2 Bombay Bahrain Boeing 707
1962 May 7 Bombay Sydney Boeing 707		1962 Oct 1 Bombay Perth		1963 Apr 1 Geneva Sydney
1964 Aug 3 Bombay Nandi			1967 Apr 1 Bombay Tehran
1967 Apr 5 Bombay Brussels		1967 Aug 15 Bombay Port Louis		1967 Aug 18 Bombay Kuala Lumpur
	1968 Oct 29 Kuwait Zurich		1968 Oct 30 Bombay Addis Ababa
1968 Oct 31 Bombay Entebbe		1969 Apr 2 Bombay Amsterdam		1969 Apr 2 Tehran Zurich
	1969 Jul 2 Bombay Dubai		1969 Oct 30 Dubai Geneva	1969 Nov 6 Geneva Dubai
1970 Oct 1 Bombay Abu Dhabi		1970 Nov 3 Bombay Dhahran		1971 May 21 Bombay London Boeing 747
	1971 May 26 Bombay New York Boeing 747 Post Office Cover		1972 Feb 4 Bombay Dacca
1972 Nov 2 Bombay Osaka		1972 Nov 3 Bombay Lusaka		1973 Nov 1 Bombay Doha
	1974 Feb 12 Bombay Muscat		1976 Mar 29 Bombay Sydney Via Madras, Singapore, Perth
1976 Apr 6 Bombay Baghdad		1976 May 30 Bombay New York Via London		1976 Jun 25 Bombay Victoria
	1976 Aug 4 Bombay Dubai		1976 Dec 19 Bombay Lagos
1976 Dec 19 Bombay Accra		1977 Apr 13 Bombay Jeddah
1978 Jan 31 Trivandrum Dubai		1978 Nov 16 Bombay Ras Al Khaymah		1980 Jan 4 Calcutta Tokyo
	1980 Jun 2 Bombay Lusaka Via Dar-es-Salaam Post Office Cover		1980 Jun 5 Bombay Melbourne Via Perth, Sydney Post Office Cover
1981 Mar 10 Bombay Sharjah Post Office Cover		1982 Oct 2 Bombay Montreal		1982 Jan 3 Amritsar Birmingham Post Office Cover
	1983 Apr 2 Bombay Sana'a		1985 Jan 19 Bombay Toronto
1993 Oct 2 Bombay Durban Johannesburg			2007 Aug 01 Mumbai New York Non Stop B777-200-LR	2007 Aug 29 Kolkata Guwahati India Post & Air India Cargo