Gwalior: Gwalior’s long association with Indian aviation has found a place in IndiGo’s in-flight magazine Hello 6E, which highlights the city in a feature titled “The History of Indian Aviation.”
The magazine traces Gwalior’s aviation connection to the late 1930s, when Maharaja Jiwajirao Scindia established Maharajpur Aerodrome outside Gwalior city.
According to the feature, major airlines of the period, including Tata Airlines and Imperial Airways, used Maharajpur as a halt on their air routes, placing Gwalior on India’s early civil aviation map at a time when commercial flying in the country was still in its formative years.
The magazine also notes the aerodrome’s military significance. Maharajpur was used by the Royal Air Force during the Second World War and continues to have an aviation connection through its use by the Indian Air Force today.
Interestingly, Gwalior also appears elsewhere in the magazine’s account of India’s early aviation network. In a section on Hyderabad, Hello 6E states that Mir Osman Ali Khan, the Nizam of Hyderabad, established Begumpet Airport in the early 1930s to connect his state with destinations including Karachi, Nagpur, Gwalior and Madras.
The reference underlines Gwalior’s position not merely as a regional airfield but as part of a broader network linking some of the most important cities and princely states of pre-Independence India.
Tata Airlines, one of the carriers mentioned in the feature, was among the pioneers of commercial aviation in India, while Imperial Airways operated long-distance services during the British era. Their presence at Maharajpur reflects the strategic importance Gwalior had acquired during the early development of scheduled air travel.
For the city, the mention in IndiGo’s national in-flight publication serves as a reminder that Gwalior’s transport history extends well beyond its celebrated railway and road connections. Long before modern terminals and packed commercial flight schedules became commonplace, aircraft carrying passengers across the subcontinent were already making Gwalior one of their stops.
The feature also connects that civilian aviation heritage with the city’s later military importance — a journey stretching from Maharaja Jiwajirao Scindia’s Maharajpur Aerodrome and early Tata Airlines services to the Royal Air Force during World War II and the Indian Air Force in the present day.
Gwalior’s inclusion in The History of Indian Aviation therefore adds another chapter to the city’s rich historical identity, showing that even in the early decades of Indian flying, the city was already firmly on the aviation map.
