Indian Airlines came into being with the performance of the Air Corporations Act 1953 and was delegated with the responsibility of providing air transportation within the country as well as to the neighboring countries.

The Airlines network distance from Kuwait in the west to Singapore in the East and covers 76 destinations - 58 within India and 18 abroad. The Indian Airlines international network covers Kuwait, Oman, UAE, Qatar and Bahrain in West Asia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Myanmar in South East Asia and Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Maldives in the South Asia sub-continent. Together with its Alliance Air Indian Airlines carrier a total of over 7.5 million passengers annually

Today, Indian Airlines, together with its fully possess subsidiary Alliance Air, has a fleet of 70 aircraft (3 wide bodied airbus A300s, 47 fly-by-wire airbus A320s, 3 Airbus A319s, 11 Boeing 737s, 2 Dornier Do-228 aircraft and 4 ATR-42. IA has already placed order for 43 new aircraft ( i.e. 19 A319s, 4 A320s & 21 A321s ), and their initiation in IAL is expected to commence, w.e.f. November, 2006.