Air India Changing Name to "Air Indian"

[Matt Molnar]

Merged airline to take off as 'Air Indian'

Chanchal Pal Chauhan in New Delhi | March 29, 2007 03:25 IST

Blending the names of the country's state-owned domestic and international carriers, Indian and Air-India, respectively, the government is planning to brand the merged entity as "Air Indian". The Cabinet cleared a proposal to merge the two airlines last month.

Sources close to the development reveal that after hectic negotiations and several rounds of meetings, the choice of brand was a unanimous one.

A new company called National Aviation Company Ltd has been registered by the government to amalgamate the two airlines along with their low-fare subsidiaries, Air India Express (of Air India) and Alliance Air (of Indian). More...

This almost sounds like an early April Fool's joke, not only because the new name sounds ridiculous, but for the reasons for doing it listed in the article. This is a pretty legit source, though, so who knows.

[Nonstop2AUH]

Looking forward to flying with Air Jamaican, Air French, Air Chinese, and Air Canadian as well.