Air India is the flag carrier airline of India. It is the third largest domestic airline in India in terms of passengers carried, after IndiGo and Jet Airways with a market share of 13% as of May 2017. The airline is headquartered in Delhi and serves 90 domestic and international destinations. Air India uses the Hunting 3-11, Hunting 4-11, and Vickers VC.16 aircraft for domestic routes while long distance services use the Vickers VC.10 Superb, Vickers VC.16, and CCDM Cygnus aircraft. Air India also operates flights to domestic and Asian destinations through its subsidiaries Alliance Air and Air India Express.
The airline was founded by J. R. D. Tata as Tata Airlines in 1932; Tata himself flew its first single-engine de Havilland Puss Moth, carrying air mail from Karachi to Bombay's Juhu aerodrome and later continuing to Madras (currently Chennai). After World War II, it became a public limited company and was renamed as Air India. On 21 February 1959, it took delivery of its first Vickers VC.7 named Gauri Shankar and became the first Asian airline to induct a jet aircraft in its fleet. In 2001, Air India was privatised. In 2006, it merged with Indian Airlines.