Air India received a surprise parking bill of nearly 10 million rupees (about $120,000) after rediscovering a long-lost Boeing 737-200 that had been quietly sitting in a remote corner of Kolkata Airport for more than a decade—a jet that somehow slipped entirely out of the memory of anyone at the airline.
The bizarre saga only came to light when frustrated airport officials contacted Air India and demanded the aircraft be removed, forcing the carrier to confront an embarrassing gap in its institutional record-keeping.
The Forgotten Jet
The aircraft, registered VT-EHH, was taken out of service and parked on a remote pad at Kolkata Airport in 2012. Over the years, staff turnover and record-keeping gaps meant the jet gradually slipped out of the airline’s institutional memory.
Air India CEO Campbell Wilson revealed the story in an internal post to employees, explaining that the airline didn’t even know the plane officially belonged to them until airport staff pointed it out and asked that it be moved. The 43-year-old Boeing 737-200 had been sitting forgotten while parking fees silently accumulated.
The Aircraft’s History
The aircraft originally joined the Indian Airlines fleet in September 1982, delivered factory-fresh from Boeing in Seattle. It flew domestic routes within India until 1998, when it was leased to Alliance Airlines for nine years.
In early 2007, with the lease period ending, the aircraft returned to Indian Airlines and was converted into a freighter. Following the merger of Indian Airlines with Air India later that year, the plane was transferred to Air India and used by India Post before being decommissioned in 2012.
That’s when it disappeared from the books—parked in a remote corner of the airport and gradually forgotten as personnel changed and records were lost in bureaucratic shuffles.
The 1,900km Journey by Road
After rediscovering the aircraft and completing its sale, Air India faced another logistical challenge: moving a plane that hadn’t flown in over a decade. The solution? Transport it by road.
The 43-year-old Boeing 737 recently began a 1,900-kilometer journey to Bengaluru on a trailer—traveling on highways rather than airways. The sale and transfer were completed last week, finally resolving the airport’s demand and Air India’s unexpected debt.
Why They Didn’t Know They Bought It
This story is not a reflection of Air India’s current ownership under Tata Group, which acquired the airline in its 2021 privatization. Rather, it’s a museum piece illustrating how the former government-run Air India functioned—or failed to function.
When Tata purchased the carrier, they didn’t know about the forgotten aircraft and certainly didn’t factor it into the price paid for the airline. The discovery came as a surprise to the new management, who inherited not just an airline but also its decades of accumulated bureaucratic oversights.
