Deccan Airways Limited was a commercial airline based at

Begumpet Airport Begumpet Airport in Hyderabad, also known as Hyderabad Old Airport, is a civil enclave located in Begumpet. The airport is home to the Rajiv Gandhi Aviation Academy (RGAA), the Telangana State Aviation Academy and the Begumpet Air Force Statio ...

in the erstwhile Hyderabad State. It was owned by the Nizam of Hyderabad and

Tata Airlines Air India is the flag carrier airline of India, headquartered at New Delhi. It is owned by Talace Private Limited, a Special-Purpose Vehicle (SPV) of Tata Sons, after Air India Limited's former owner, the Government of India, completed the sa ...

History

Founded in 1945, it was one of the nine airlines existing in India during independence. The airline was a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and economic risk, risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four rea ...

of Nizam Government of erstwhile Hyderabad State and Tata Airlines. 71 per cent of Deccan Airways was owned by the Nizam's Government and the rest was owned by Tata Sons and others. Commercial operations were launched with a fleet of three aircraft in July 1946, operating a twice weekly service between Madras and

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders ...

, with halts at

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India ...

Nagpur Nagpur (pronunciation: aːɡpuːɾ is the third largest city and the winter capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the 13th largest city in India by population and according to an Oxford's Economics report, Nagpur is projected to ...

Bhopal Bhopal (; ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the ''City of Lakes'' due to its various natural and artificial lakes. It i ...

and

Gwalior Gwalior() is a major city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh; it lies in northern part of Madhya Pradesh and is one of the Counter-magnet cities. Located south of Delhi, the capital city of India, from Agra and from Bhopal, the s ...

. It also flew a twice weekly Hyderabad-

Bangalore Bangalore (), List of renamed places in India, officially Bengaluru (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan area, metropolitan population of a ...

flight. By March 1947, the airline had seven aircraft in its fleet and was operating the Madras- Delhi flight daily as well as a daily Hyderabad -

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...

flight. Between July 1946, and May 1947, the airline had carried more than Eleven thousand passengers, apart from 51 tonnes of freight, and almost seven tonnes of mail. The seventh Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan, alongwith some close aides ready to take his first test ride in a Dakota from Begumpet airport

The seventh Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan, alongwith some close aides ready to take his first test ride in a Dakota from Begumpet airport

Post-Annexation

After

Operation Polo Operation Polo was the code name of the Hyderabad " police action" in September 1948, by the then newly independent Dominion of India against Hyderabad State. It was a military operation in which the Indian Armed Forces invaded the Nizam-ru ...

for annexing Hyderabad State, the airline ownership changed to Government of India. By 1952 Government of India held 78% of shares of Deccan Airways. The shares were acquired from the Hyderabad Government & Nizam State Railways. 13% of the shares was still held by

Tatas The Tata Group () is an Indian multinational conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai. Established in 1868, it is India's largest conglomerate, with products and services in over 150 countries, and operations in 100 countries across six continents ...

& 9% by the general public

Nationalization

In 1953 Deccan Airways Limited along with seven other airlines under the ''Air Corporations Act'' were merged to form a single domestic carrier,

Indian Airlines Indian Airlines was a division of Air India Limited. It was based in Delhi and focused primarily on domestic routes, along with several international services to neighbouring countries in Asia. It was a division of Air India Limited after m ...

. After this on 10 October 1953, Deccan Airways resigned its associate membership of IATA.

Fleet

By the time it was merged with

in 1953, it had a fleet of thirteen Douglas

DC-3 The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner manufactured by Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II. It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper version ...

'Dakota' aircraft. The DC-3 aircraft were brought from

US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sig ...

at a throw away price after they were left unused at Assam after World War 2.

Accidents and incidents

;5 April 1950: A Deccan Airways C-47A (registration VT-CJD) crashed at

Hatiara Hatiara is a locality in Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation of North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is close to Kolkata and also a part of the area covered by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA). Tran ...

, while attempting to return to

Dum Dum Airport Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport is an international airport located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, serving the Kolkata Metropolitan Area and is the aviation hub for eastern and northeastern India. It is located approximatel ...

after an engine failed, killing all three crew; ;21 November 1951: A Deccan Airways C-47A (registration VT-AUO) crashed at

, while attempting to land was made in extremely poor visibility conditions, killing all four crew and thirteen passengers; ;19 February 1952: A Deccan Airways C-47A (registration VT-AXE) crashed on landing at Sonegaon Airport due to pilot error and possible misread altimeter, killing three of 16 on board. ;30 April 1952: A Deccan Airways C-47A (registration VT-AUN) crashed at

Safdarjung Airport Safdarjung Airport is an airport in New Delhi, India, in the Safdarjung (Delhi), neighbourhood of the same name. Established during the British Raj as Willingdon Airfield, it started operations as an aerodrome in 1929, when it was India's secon ...

, Delhi due to engine failure, killing four crew and five passengers.

References