Air India just sold a Boeing 737 it forgot that it owned. The 737-200 is 43-years old, and was sitting in a remote corner of Kolkata airport for more than a decade. No one knew about it until the frustrated airport finally wanted it moved.
This is not a Tata story – the airline’s current owner – it’s a museum piece to the former government-run Air India functioned. While Tata owned it, they didn’t know about it and certainly didn’t factor it in the price paid for the airline when it was privatized.
- Registration VT-EHH, a Boeing 737-200 freighter
- It was a 737-2A8F, part of the “Baby Boeing” family
- First flight: 1982
Last week @airindia completed the sale and transfer of this B737-200 (VT-EHH) that had been grounded at CCU since 2012.
Delivered to Indian Airlines (IC) in 1982, then on to "Alliance Air", until it was converted into a freighter and flew with "India Post" titles.
My 2019 photo. pic.twitter.com/Zmqx13QORo— Trinidade Gois (@flyingTrini) November 21, 2025
The aircraft was originally delivered to Indian Airlines, and acquired when the two airlines merged. It had been converted to a freiter in 2007, and taken out of service in 2012. The intention at the time was that it would operate for India’s postal service. It sat abandoned for 13 years. Instead of parting it out or selling it for scrap, nobody bothered, and they just left it sitting there.
Airport officials eventually contacted Air India and told them, in essence: you have an old 737 sitting in a far-off corner of the field, please remove it. That triggered an internal check inside Air India.
In an internal message to employees, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson told staff that in the years before privatisation it was omitted from multiple documents, and over time simply dropped out of memory. The buyer and sale price have not been disclosed.
Another classic – VT-EHH saw nearly 25 years of service with IA, before it was converted by AI for India Post cargo duties. Sadly, this venture didn't last long and the airframe ended up in Rajasthan as a themed restaurant. Seen here in its final days at DEL #AVgeek #DELClicks pic.twitter.com/9kaw6mVWld
— Shashanka (@sidelower) October 9, 2020
Two old classic birds from #airindia Cargo who were stored together in #Kolkata.
While VT-EHH is still in Kolkata, VT-EGG moved to Rajasthan to become an aircraft restaurant.
I am sure @nivedita_bhasin ma'am & @CaptShaktiLumba sir will have memories with them from IC & CD era. pic.twitter.com/sw2nJx9aMp
— Dipalay Dey (@dipalay) May 8, 2021
A normal airline has a fixed-asset register, tied into depreciation schedules, insurance, maintenance forecasting, and financing covenants. They’re paying bills for parking. Insurers will want to know what planes the airline owns, where they are and what risk they’re covering. At the old Air India, taxpayers were on the hook and nobody cared.
In many ways Air India is still a mess – it takes time to turn around an airline like this, and the new owners are making huge investments. It’s not just new planes, it’s cleaning up vendor contracts, renegotiating leases, rebuilding IT, and fixing HR. VT-EHH is exactly the kind of thing that surfaces in that process.
Was it left unclaimed at Baggage Service after its last flight?