The ongoing war in the Middle East has exposed just how vulnerable the global aviation network can become when conflict erupts around major transit corridors and international hubs. Airports across the Gulf region, especially Dubai International Airport, have faced severe disruption as military tensions between the United States, Israel, and Iran sent shockwaves through global air travel. Thousands of flights were delayed, diverted or cancelled as missiles, drones and airspace restrictions transformed one of the busiest aviation zones in the world into a region of uncertainty. However, amid the discussion around Dubai’s strategic importance, a forgotten chapter of Indian aviation history has quietly resurfaced. Long before Dubai became the world’s most important connecting hub, Kolkata — then known as Calcutta — stood at the centre of global aviation routes, with flights from Europe, Southeast Asia and Australia routinely passing through the city during the golden age of air travel.
One of the many passengers caught in the chaos caused by the Gulf conflict was 22-year-old Priyanshu Narayan, a student from Lucknow currently studying in Manchester. Narayan had planned to return home during his summer break in March and had already booked tickets for a journey from Manchester to New Delhi through Germany. But as the Middle East conflict escalated, aviation routes across multiple continents started collapsing under the pressure of cancellations and rerouting. Even though Germany itself was not part of the war zone, the interconnected nature of global aviation meant that disruptions in Gulf hubs directly affected flights across Europe. Narayan’s flight was eventually cancelled at the peak of the crisis, forcing him to delay his return home and lose nearly a week of his month-long break while waiting for a safer and more stable route back to India.
Narayan described the situation as both emotionally draining and unexpectedly difficult, especially because his family became deeply concerned about the deteriorating geopolitical situation. According to him, his parents even advised him not to travel back immediately because of fears surrounding aviation safety during the conflict. Although he later managed to secure another ticket on a different route, the experience highlighted how dependent modern international travel has become on a handful of mega aviation hubs in the Gulf region. Airports such as Hamad International Airport, Abu Dhabi International Airport and Ben Gurion Airport witnessed disruptions during the conflict, but the biggest impact was seen at Dubai International Airport, which serves as a crucial transit point connecting more than 270 destinations across Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and the Americas. With Dubai partially paralysed during the conflict, the ripple effects spread rapidly through the international aviation system.
Dubai today functions not merely as an airport but as one of the world’s most important aviation ecosystems. It acts as a gigantic interchange point where passengers from different continents converge before dispersing to their final destinations. The city’s geographic location between East and West helped it emerge as a natural transit centre during the rise of long-haul aviation in the late 20th century. However, what many people outside aviation circles do not realise is that India once possessed a similar global aviation gateway in Calcutta. Before the rise of Dubai or Singapore, flights travelling between Europe and Australia regularly stopped in Calcutta, and the city enjoyed a status that placed it among the most connected aviation centres in Asia. During the 1950s and 1960s, nearly every major airline operating between Europe and Asia served the city, making Dum Dum Airport one of the busiest and most internationally connected airports in the region.
The airport,t now known as Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, rt experienced its golden era between the 1930s and 1960s. The foundations of Kolkata’s aviation importance were actually laid during the colonial period in the 1920s, when British authorities recognised the city’s strategic commercial and military importance within the British Empire. International carriers such as KLM operated flights connecting Amsterdam and Batavia, now Jakarta, through Calcutta as early as 1924. Imperial Airways, the predecessor of British Airways, used Calcutta as a major stopover on its famous London-Australia route beginning in the 1930s. Air Orient operated routes linking Paris to Saigon through the city. Over time, Calcutta transformed into a major centre for cargo, passenger movement, mail services and military aviation, placing it at the heart of early global air connectivity.
By the mid-20th century, airlines from across Europe, Asia and North America regularly operated flights into Calcutta. Carriers such as Air France, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Pan Am, Swissair, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, Japan Airlines and Aeroflot all had a presence in the city. During that era, Calcutta was not simply another Indian airport but one of Asia’s premier international gateways. Aviation historians note that the city’s importance stemmed partly from its status as one of the most significant cities in the British Empire. In fact, historian KS Nair argues that Calcutta was second only to London in strategic importance during parts of the early 20th century due to its military and commercial role. Flights connecting Europe to Australia often required multiple stopovers because aircraft at the time lacked the range for nonstop journeys, and Calcutta naturally became one of the most important transit points on these long-haul routes.
Air travel during the 1920s and 1930s was vastly different from the modern aviation experience. Flights were slower, more luxurious and catered to a small elite section of society. Passengers travelling between London and Australia often took over a week to complete the journey, with multiple overnight stays at luxury hotels near transit stops. Seaplanes and flying boats played a major role in long-distance aviation because they could land on rivers, lakes and calm water bodies without requiring fully developed airports. In fact, British aircraft manufacturer Short Brothers built a flying boat named the “Short S.8 Calcutta”, reflecting the city’s growing prominence within imperial aviation networks. These flying boats landed along the Hooghly River at places such as Bally and Dakshineswar during operations linking Britain to Australia through India and Southeast Asia.
Kolkata’s aviation story actually began even earlier than Dum Dum Airport itself. In 1910, only seven years after the Wright Brothers achieved the world’s first powered flight, two aircraft reportedly took off from the Tollygunge Club golf course in Calcutta and circled over parts of the city before landing again. Aviation researchers later rediscovered this forgotten event, placing Calcutta among the earliest Indian cities to witness powered flight demonstrations. Dum Dum Airport itself was formally established in 1924, and over the following decade, des it rapidly evolved into one of the most important aviation centres in Asia. By the late 1930s, freedom fighter Subhas Chandra Bose had become one of the prominent Indian figures associated with international air travel through the airport, and photographs of him arriving from overseas flights became symbolic of Calcutta’s aviation era.
The Second World War dramatically expanded Calcutta’s importance in global aviation. As Japan advanced across Southeast Asia and cut off traditional land supply routes into China, the Allies turned eastern India into a massive air logistics base. Calcutta and northeastern India became central to operations supplying China through dangerous air routes over the Himalayas. According to historians, thousands of flights carrying military supplies, fuel and equipment operated through the region during the war. At one point, the scale of operations made Calcutta one of the busiest aviation hubs anywhere in the world. Even the famous Red Road in central Calcutta was occasionally converted into an operational runway for Royal Air Force aircraft during wartime, serving both strategic and morale-building purposes.
After India’s Independence, Dum Dum Airport entered another phase of expansion during the 1950s and 1960s. This period represented the peak of Kolkata’s international aviation status. The airport welcomed some of the world’s biggest carriers and even hosted the de Havilland Comet, the world’s first commercial jet-powered passenger aircraft, on BOAC’s London route. Indian Airlines also launched one of India’s earliest domestic jet services between Calcutta and Delhi during this period. Posters and advertisements from the era prominently featured Calcutta alongside London, Singapore and Sydney on international route maps. For many travellers in Europe and Asia, Calcutta was a familiar stop on intercontinental journeys, and the city’s airport symbolised India’s growing connection with global aviation networks.
However, beginning in the 1970s, Kolkata Airport started experiencing a gradual but irreversible decline. Multiple factors contributed to this transformation. One of the biggest changes came from advances in aircraft technology. The introduction of long-range jumbo jets such as the Boeing 747 fundamentally altered global aviation by allowing airlines to operate much longer nonstop flights. Routes that once depended on multiple stopovers, including Calcutta, no longer required intermediate transit points. Airlines increasingly shifted towards hubs such as Singapore, Bahrain and later Dubai, which offered more strategic geographic positioning and modern infrastructure for long-haul travel.
At the same time, Kolkata itself was undergoing major political and economic turmoil. The rise of the Naxalite movement, labour unrest, industrial decline and refugee influxes linked to the Bangladesh Liberation War significantly altered the city’s economic landscape. Global airlines gradually began reducing services because of declining business demand and instability. By the early 1970s, several major carriers, including Swissair, Lufthansa and Air India, had already withdrawn operations from Calcutta. Aviation authorities acknowledged in Parliament that airlines preferred shifting operations toward Delhi and Mumbai, which were emerging as India’s primary economic and political centres. Reports during the 1980s openly described the airport’s decline, pointing out that only a handful of international flights remained active each week compared to much larger operations in Mumbai and Delhi.
Economic stagnation in West Bengal during the later decades further accelerated the airport’s decline. Analysts argue that the health of a city’s airport often reflects the strength of its economy, and Kolkata’s reduced business activity directly affected international aviation demand. While cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad experienced rapid economic expansion and infrastructure growth after liberalisation, Kolkata struggled to attract comparable levels of global business investment. As a result, airlines prioritised other Indian cities over Kolkata when planning international expansion. Although the airport later received infrastructure upgrades and a modern integrated terminal, its global network never recovered to the levels seen during its peak decades.
Today, Kolkata Airport primarily functions as a regional gateway connecting Southeast Asia and the Gulf region. Direct long-haul connectivity to Europe or North America has almost disappeared entirely. This has created enormous inconvenience for members of the Bengali diaspora settled across Europe and the United States. Travellers frequently complain about long layovers, expensive domestic connections, separate baggage restrictions and exhausting travel times caused by the absence of direct international services. Copenhagen-based academic Angana Moitra described international travel through Kolkata as extremely taxing because passengers are often forced to navigate multiple transit points and extended waiting periods. Similarly, Los Angeles-based technology executive Sabyasachi Ghosh noted that travel from the United States to Kolkata can sometimes exceed 40 hours because of poor connectivity and difficult transfer schedules.
Even though there have been occasional efforts to revive direct long-haul connectivity, results have remained limited. A direct Air India Kolkata-London service briefly operated during the COVID period but was later discontinued in 2022. Political leaders from West Bengal have repeatedly demanded better international connectivity for the city. During the airport’s centenary celebrations in 2024, Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy publicly appealed for the restoration of direct flights to destinations like London and Paris. Union Civil Aviation Minister Rammohan Naidu Kinjarapu responded by promising efforts to expand Kolkata Airport’s international network and increase its global reach.
Despite these promises, Kolkata’s aviation story today remains one of nostalgia mixed with unrealised potential. For older generations, the city still evokes memories of an era when international airlines from Europe and America landed regularly at Dum Dum Airport, making Calcutta one of Asia’s great aviation crossroads. For younger generations, however, the airport increasingly represents missed opportunities and frustrating travel experiences dominated by stopovers and indirect routes. As Dubai and other Gulf hubs face uncertainty because of geopolitical conflict, the story of Kolkata serves as a reminder that global aviation power can shift dramatically across decades. Once the pride of Indian aviation, Kolkata today continues to wait for a revival that many residents and aviation enthusiasts still hope will someday return the city to international prominence.
