First 'Air India' flight on August 1

After the merger between the two national carriers -- Indian (formerly Indian Airlines) and Air India, the merged airline will have its first flight from Mumbai to New York on August 1, said Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel while unveiling the logo for the merged airline officially to be named 'Air India'. The logo contains characteristics of both the entities.

While the flying red swan is morphed from Air India's characteristic centaur, the yellow chakra on the inset is taken from Indian's Konark Chakra. The colours too have characteristics of both the airlines.

The new airline will retain Air India's popular mascot the 'Maharaja'. The AI code used for erstwhile Air India will be used for the merged airline. Air India Express will be the only low cost airline to be run under the new airline.

"We decided on Air India because it is a globally recognised name," said Patel. Discussing other details about the merged entity, the Minister said that the registered office of Air India would be in Delhi while the corporate office would be in Mumbai.

The office for domestic operations as well as the strategic business units would be based in Delhi.

The merged company -- National Aviation Company Ltd -- is supposed to float the initial public offering IPO in 2008, said the minister.

The minister said the first Boeing B777 LR would be delivered this July followed by two other B777 LRs.

Talking to the reporters, the minster said that measures for reducing prices of aviation turbine fuel would be taken within 2-3 weeks.

On being asked about the problem with Malaysia not allowing certain flight into their territory, the minister said the issue would be taken up in a meeting on bilateral issues to be held on 14-15 June in Moscow.

Recently, in retaliation to Malaysia disallowing certain Indian flights in their territory, the Director General Civil Aviation had threatened to stop their flights to India too.