[4] On 21 February 1960, it took delivery of its first Boeing 707 named Gauri Shankar and became the first Asian airline to induct a jet aircraft in its fleet.

On 15 October 1932, Tata flew a Puss Moth carrying air mail from Karachi to Bombay (currently Mumbai) and the aircraft continued to Madras (currently Chennai) piloted by Nevill Vintcent, a former Royal Air Force pilot and friend of Tata.

In its first year of operation, the airline flew 160,000 miles (260,000 km), carrying 155 passengers and 9.72 tonnes (10.71 tons) of mail and made a profit of ₹60,000 (US$690).

[7] During the Second World War, the airline helped the Royal Air Force with troop movements, shipping of supplies, rescue of refugees and maintenance of planes.

[13] On 8 June 1948, a Lockheed Constellation L-749A named Malabar Princess (registered VT-CQP) took off from Bombay bound for London Heathrow marking the airline's first international flight.

[14] The company was renamed as Air India International Limited and the domestic services were transferred to Indian Airlines as a part of restructuring.

[16] The airline took delivery of its first Lockheed Constellation L-1049 named Rani of Jhansi (registered VT-DGL) and inaugurated services to Bangkok, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Singapore.

In 1971, the airline took delivery of its first Boeing 747-200B named Emperor Ashoka (registered VT-EBD)[19] and introduced a new Palace in the Sky livery and branding.

[16] In 1993, Air India took delivery of a Boeing 747-400 named Konark (registered VT-ESM) and operated the first non-stop flight between New York and Delhi.

[27] Around 2006, both Air India and Indian Airlines showed signs of financial crisis as combined losses were ₹7.7 billion (US$89 million).

[32][33] A report by the Comptroller and Auditor General blamed the decision to buy 111 new planes and the ill-timed merger with Indian Airlines for the poor financial situation.

[34][35] In August 2011, the invitation to join Star Alliance was suspended as a result of its failure to meet the minimum standards for the membership.

[43] In May 2012, the airline was fined $80,000 by the US Transportation Department for failing to post customer service and tarmac delay contingency plans on its website and adequately inform passengers about its optional fees.

[47] In January 2013, Air India cleared a part of its pending dues through funds raised by selling and leasing back the newly acquired Boeing 787 Dreamliners.

[55][56] In August 2015, it signed an agreement with Citibank and State Bank of India to raise $300 million in external commercial borrowing to meet working capital requirements.

According to the EOI, the new owner would have to take on a debt of ₹33,392 crore (US$3.9 billion) and a bid would have to be submitted by mid-May as the Government wanted to complete the selling process by the end of 2018.

[66][67] In view of the prevailing situation arising out of COVID-19, the last date for submission of interest was extended multiple times and the Government eventually received EOIs from seven parties by December 2020.

[69] In September 2021, Spice Jet's Ajay Singh-led consortium and Tata Sons submitted their financial bids for Air India.

[128][129] It was created by Bobby Kooka, the then-commercial director of Air India, and Umesh Rao, an artist with J. Walter Thompson Limited in 1946.

[16] The first logo of Air India was a centaur, a stylised version of Sagittarius shooting an arrow in a circle representing the wheel of Konark.

[136] On 22 May 2007, Air India and Indian Airlines unveiled their new livery consisting of a Flying Swan with the wheel of Konark placed inside it.

[137] On 15 May 2007, Air India refreshed its livery, making the Rajasthani arches along the windows slightly smaller, extending a stylised line from the tail of the aircraft to the nose and painting the underbelly red.

According to the airline, plans for introducing ultra-long flights with service to Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles were cancelled due to factors like high fuel prices and weak demand.

[167] On 24 April 2014, Air India issued a tender for leasing 14 Airbus A320 aircraft for up to six years, to strengthen its domestic network.

Air India's widebody fleet is equipped with seatback on-demand in-flight entertainment systems on which passengers can choose from available content.

[177] On its other narrowbodies, and as an interim solution on its legacy widebody fleet, Air India uses the Bluebox streaming IFE service.

[179] It replaced Shubh Yatra (meaning Happy Journey), which was a bilingual in-flight magazine published in English and Hindi.

[187] Over 111,000 people were evacuated from Amman to Mumbai, a distance of 4,117 kilometres (2,558 mi), by operating 488 flights from 13 August to 11 October 1990  – lasting 59 days.

[192] In August 2021, Air India evacuated 669 people under Operation Devi Shakti from war-torn Afghanistan during the 2021 Taliban offensive.

[193] In February 2022, Air India evacuated Indian citizens from Russia and Ukraine as a part of Operation Ganga during the Russo-Ukrainian War.