Pushpaka Aviation Pvt. Ltd. was an air charter company based in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

, India. It operated fleet of helicopters from its base at Juhu Aerodrome in Mumbai. It is involved primarily in

crop dusting Aerial application, or what is informally referred to as crop dusting, involves spraying crops with crop protection products from an agricultural aircraft. Planting certain types of seed are also included in aerial application. The specific sp ...

, aerial seeding, and fleet maintenance in addition to its chartered passenger operations. As of July 2022, Pushpaka Aviation is non-operational.

History

The company was started in 1969 by Mr. H.P. Rao, with three Bell 47G-5 helicopters to undertake agricultural crop spraying in India, whilst taking advantage of the subsidies offered to the farming community by the Government. It was the first private company in India to start scheduled international passenger flights as an associate of the national carrier

Air India Air India is the flag carrier airline of India, headquartered at New Delhi. It is owned by Talace Private Limited, a Special-Purpose Vehicle (SPV) of Tata Sons, after Air India Limited's former owner, the Government of India, completed the ...

from 1979 to 1983.

Pushpaka Airlines

Pushpaka Airlines, the airline division of Pushpak Aviation, began providing passenger and freight charter services from Mumbai to the

Persian Gulf The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The bod ...

. It operated as an associate of the National carrier

using two Sud Aviation Caravelle-6N aircraft, purchased from

Indian Airlines Indian Airlines was a division of Air India Limited. It was based in Delhi and focused primarily on domestic routes, along with several international services to neighbouring countries in Asia. It was a division of Air India Limited after m ...

in 1978. Operations began initially as cargo services between Sharjah and Mumbai and were later expanded to carry passengers as well. The airline ceased functioning in June 1983.

References

{{Portalbar, India, Companies, Aviation Airlines established in 1969 Airlines disestablished in 1983 Defunct airlines of India Indian companies disestablished in 1983 Indian companies established in 1969 1969 establishments in Maharashtra