Let me wish all of you guys a very happy Sinhala and Tamil New Year.
It was through a casual chat with one of my friends that prompted me to make a post on this topic. I have tried to highlight the historical landmarks of the key airlines that operate right now, and also to point out the historical timelines of the airlines industry too.
Here we GO!!!
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| Logos of Emirates, Sri Lankan, KLM and Lufthansa Airlines clockwise |
- The World’s first ever airline is identified as “DELAG” (Deutsche Luftschiffahrts-Aktiengesellschaft), which first operated in 1909 and was headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany.
- However, the oldest airline out of those that operate currently is “KLM”, the national airline of Netherlands, which operates from 1920, and is headquartered in Amstelveen, Netherlands. The merger of KLM with Air France, in May 2004 created Air France-KLM, which is incorporated under French law with headquarters at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport.
- Germany’s Lufthansa Airline, was formed in 1926, and is currently the airline is the world's fifth-largest airline in terms of overall passengers carried, operating services to 18 domestic destinations and 183 international destinations in 78 countries across Africa, Americas, Asia and Europe.
- Headquartered in Atlanta, Delta Airlines is the world's largest airline operating under a single certificate, operating flights on six continents across the globe. Delta operates an extensive domestic and international network, spanning North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean and Australia. The Airline was founded in 1924.
- The largest airline of the Middle East, Emirates was formed in 1985, and currently operates to 105 cities in 62 countries.
- Out of the Asian countries, India was also one of the first countries to embrace civil aviation. One of the first West Asian airline companies was Air India, which had its beginning as Tata Airlines in 1932.
- The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), was formed in 1947 (headquartered in Montreal, Canada) which is a specialized agency of the United Nations, works with the principles and techniques of international air navigation and focuses on the growth and sustainability of air travelling.
- International Air Transport Association (IATA) was formed in Havana, Cuba in 1945, which is also a regulatory body which works globally on maintaining the air travelling standards.
- Sri Lankan Airlines, the national carrier of Sri Lanka was formed in July, 1979 and is currently headed by its Chairman, Nishantha Wickremasinghe. In December 1992, the airline purchased its first Airbus A320.
