Hyderabad: India’s first flight carrying Haj pilgrims took off from Hyderabad On 22nd October 1946. Earlier, pilgrims used to travel by a sea route for performing Haj.
According to the report published in Times of India, the first flight carried 18 Haj pilgrims. Two Deccan Airways Dakota aircrafts took off from the old airport of Hyderabad located at Begumpet in 1946 amid slogans “Allah-u-Akbar”. Khan Bahadur Nawab Ahmed Nawaz Jung was also traveling on that flight.
It may be noted that at that time, there was no flight from other Indian cities to Jeddah.
The name of the pilot who took off the first flight was Captain Cox and his junior was Munshi. The technical support was provided by Nasir, Radio Officer and Lord, Flight Engineer. It may be mentioned that Deccan Airways was the leading airlines at that time. In 1948, the flights of Deccan Airways were discontinued due to uncertain political situation in erstwhile Hyderabad State. It was again started in 1949 after the Police Action.