to the agents and trained their staff. Vayudoot started with retired flight crew of Indian Airlines to fly the HS-748 and F27 aircraft. As Dornier 228 were bought or leased, new pilots were recruited. The same held for the core engineering team, which comprised almost all of ex-Indian Airlines engineers. Vayudoot became a public company in February 1983, owned jointly by Indian Airlines and Air India. At this time, its load factors were less than 50 per cent. Vayudoot's first Dornier 228 began service in 1985 on the Delhi-Raebareli-Lucknow route. A total of ten Dornier 228s were ordered by Vayudoot. Subsequently, the services of Vayudoot were extended to other regions, charting 100 stations in the country earning the sobriquet "worlds fastest growing airline". Vayudoot quickly established hubs at Bombay (now Mumbai), Delhi, Madras (now Chennai), and Hyderabad. Sub-bases were, at some points of time, established at Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh and Guwahati in Assam. The lack of adequate traffic to sustain operations on all these routes adversely affected the company's financial performance. After a review, the number of stations on the operational network was brought down to 48 on 31 March 1991. Vayudoot was then focused on consolidating its operations and rationalising its fare structure rather than embark on large-scale expansion of its network. Its operations were again primarily restricted to the Northeastern region and other inaccessible areas. Vayudoot also operated an Agro Aviation Division which was involved in aerial spraying operations, seeding and afforestation operations. Vayudoot's financial performance continued to deteriorate which finally led to the dissolution of the company and merger of its assets into Indian Airlines in 1993. On 1 April 1997 its flight operations were transferred to Alliance Air, which is a newly formed subsidiary of Indian Airlines since 1996 and its employees were absorbed into Indian Airlines and Air India. Night Air Mail Service In 1985, Vayudoot started operating the Inland Night Air Mail Service (NAMS), a domestic overnight airmail service for the Indian Postal Service. The facility of this Vayudoot airmail service was also extended to a private courier. Every night, flights from the major metropolitan cities of India converged upon Nagpur Airport in the centre of the country. Usually the routes were: Delhi-Jaipur-Nagpur Calcutta-Varanasi-Nagpur Bombay-Nagpur Madras-Hyderabad-Nagpur Despite a successful run of over a year, the service was discontinued because of demanding nature of the operation. The unpressurized Dornier 228 was limited to an