Ninety-three years ago, a young J.R.D. Tata lifted off from a dusty Karachi airstrip in a De Havilland Puss Moth, bound for Bombay (now Mumbai) via Ahmedabad with a sack of air mail. That short Tata Airlines (later renamed Air India) flight changed the course of Indian aviation forever.
Cut to December 2025: two brand-new Diamond DA 42NG trainer aircraft, with their propellers glinting in the Alpine sun, trace a flight path with not one, but six hops, bringing home to India the wings that will teach more of its own to fly, on its own soil. And contribute to the change that Air India is ushering in for Indian aviation, all over again.
First two of Air India’s 34 trainer aircraft
The two Diamond DA 42NG aircraft are among the 34 trainer aircraft that Air India ordered in December 2024. These will be used for the training of cadet pilots at South Asia’s largest Flying Training Organisation (FTO) being developed by Air India in Amravati, Maharashtra. They join 13 single engine aircraft from Piper Aircraft, Florida, which have already been shipped to India.
180 cadet pilots will train at the Amravati FTO every year, reducing the need for aspiring aviators to go to distant academies offshore. Once trained here, these cadet pilots will further train themselves to get certified to operate Air India’s commercial flights at the sprawling Aviation Academy in Gurugram, near Delhi.
The Diamond’s journey across half the world
The Diamond’s flight to Amravati is the kind of thing that thrills AvGeeks around the world. On 7 December 2025, the two aircraft lifted off at Diamond Aircraft’s factory at Wiener Neustadt (Vienna, Austria). One traced the Adriatic coastline to Dubrovnik in Croatia for its first fuel stop and overnight. And the other chose a more glamorous first leg, hopping over to Mykonos, Greece. Air India’s little Diamonds thereafter fell into formation on a common route that reads like a bucket-list pilot logbook:
These aircraft each flew roughly 6,700 kilometres across half the world, touching down at six countries en route.
Most of the journey was flown below 15,000 feet altitude, close enough to feel a golden sunrise in Egypt and smell the frankincense-scented air of Muscat, though they occasionally climbed up to 20,000 feet. The longest leg clocked just about 4 hours and 30 minutes.
A mini version of the new Air India livery
Even while wearing temporary test registrations, the two Diamond DA62 aircraft already sport Air India’s bold new livery in a miniature and absolutely adorable form. Passers-by at every stop did double-takes.
Homecoming
The two aircraft landed at Ahmedabad on 10 December 2025 to clear import and customs formalities, as they were acquired by way of transactions via GIFT City (India’s first and only International Financial Services Centre) in Gandhinagar.
They lifted off again today for a short, final leg to Belora airfield in Amravati. There, a new runway awaits.
