Who named Air India? Tata group answers by sharing a 1946 monthly letter. READ

While sharing this information via social media, 10 days after the state-owned airline was handed over to the group, the business conglomerate today said it had initially chosen four names for the airline — Indian Airlines, Pan-Indian Airlines, Trans-Indian Airlines & Air-India.

Notably, the Tata group had lost control of India’s first airline Air India nearly seven decades ago, before taking it back from the central government in January 2021. “Back in 1946, when Tata Air Lines expanded from a division of Tata Sons into a company, we also had to name it. The choice for India’s first airline company came down to Indian Airlines, Pan-Indian Airlines, Trans-Indian Airlines and Air-India#AirIndiaOnBoard #WingsOfChange,” Tata Group tweeted.

The tweet further said the final decision on choosing the name was taken by the group employees. “But who made the final decision? Read this excerpt from the Tata Monthly Bulletin of 1946 to know. #AirIndiaOnBoard #WingsOfChange #ThisIsTata.”

The Tata group also shared its monthly bulletin letter issued back in 1946, which stated that “to the innately democratic mind of the head of the Tata organisation, it seemed a good idea to let the selection be made by popular opinion in Bombay House through a sort of Gallup Poll or Sample Opinion Survey”.

The bulletin further stated that accordingly, voting papers were distributed so as to ascertain the views of representative sections of opinion among Tata employees. The voters were requested to indicate their first and second preferences.

“The first count revealed 64 votes for Air-India, 51 for Indian Air Lines, 28 for Trans-Indian Air Lines and 19 for Pan-Indian Air Lines. When the less favoured names had been eliminated, the final count showed 72 votes for Air-India and 58 for Indian Air Lines. Thus, the name of the new company comes to be ‘AIR-INDIA’,” the bulletin said.

On January 27, Tatas took over control of Air India, its subsidiary Air India Express as well as a 50 per cent stake in joint venture AISATS.

Through a competitive bidding process, the government sold loss-making Air India to Talace for ₹18,000 crore. As part of the deal, Talace paid ₹2,700 crore in cash and took over ₹15,300 crore debt of the airline. The remaining debt and borrowings of Air India were transferred to AIAHL.