[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.

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.

[63] In March 2018, the Government issued an Expression of Interest (EOI) to sell a 76% stake in Air India, along with low-cost airline Air India Express, and a 50% stake in AISATS, a ground handling joint venture with Singapore Airport Terminal Services (SATS).

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.