3. INTRODUCTION
• Air India One (also referred to as AI-1or AIC001) is the call sign of any Air India aircraft
carrying the Prime Minister of India, President of India or the Vice President of India. Air
India is the national airline of India.
• The aircraft are operated as VIP flights by the Indian Air Force (IAF).
• The IAF's Air Headquarters Communications Squadron, based at Indira Gandhi
International Airport (formerly Palam Air Force Base) in New Delhi, is in charge of
operating these aircraft.
4.
5. DETAILS
• Apart from the Boeing 747-400 owned by Air India and used on international state visits, the IAF
currently owns four 14 seater Embraer 135 and three customized 46 seater Boeing Business Jets
(BBJ) that have a VIP cabin and are used for VIP movement
• Each Embraer 135 is equipped with missile-deflecting systems, modern flight management
system including global positioning system, as well as category II instrument landing system.
• The Three BBJs, christened Rajdoot, Rajhans and Rajkamal cost the IAF INR 9.34 billion each
(INR 7.34 billion for the actual aircraft plus an additional INR 2 billion for Self Protection Suites).
• Self-protection suites include radar warning receivers,it also has highly trained commandos to
protect the president/vice/prime minister, missile-approach warning and counter-measure
systems.
6.
7.
8. REPLACEMENTS
• The Government is in the process of finding a replacement to the over two-decade-old
Boeing 747 Jumbo Jets of Air India that have been used for long distance VVIP flights.
• The options from Boeing are the four-engine B-747 and two-engine B-777 and B-787.
• Incidentally, Air India already has both the long range (LR) and extended range (ER)
versions of the Boeing 777, apart from the constantly snag-ridden Dreamliners (787).
• The other options are from Airbus — four-engine A-340 and two-engine A-330, apart from
the under development A-350.
