Transportes Aéreos da Índia Portuguesa

Transportes Aéreos da Índia Portuguesa (Air Transport of Portuguese India) or TAIP was an airline which operated from Portuguese India from 1955 to 1961. During this period, it functioned as the state airline of Portuguese India, which comprised Goa, Daman and Diu.

TAIP was created in 1955 as a public company linked to the General Government of the Portuguese India, initially named STAIP - Serviços de Transportes Aéreos da Índia Portuguesa (Air Transport Services of Portuguese India). The airline was commonly referred to by the acronym TAIP.

The main objective of the creation of TAIP was to counteract the blockade that India had imposed upon Portugal's territories next to India, as part of Nehru's efforts to annex them. The creation of TAIP was accompanied by the development of airport facilities of Goa, Daman and Diu to allow the operation of large aircraft, allowing air links with these territories without any use of Indian infrastructure.(MONTEIRO, 2008).

After the refusal of the Portuguese Government to hand over Goa, Daman and Diu to India, Indian Prime Minister Nehru adopted a policy of blocking the services and infrastructure vital to the economy of these regions in the hope of inducing a revolt by the Goans. In effect, foreign trade, air routes, rail links, telephone lines and bank accounts were cut off, and the movement of people and goods between Goa, Daman and Diu and the territories controlled by the Indian union was banned. The Portuguese Governor-General Paulo Bénard Guedes was concerned about the urgent need to find alternative means for moving people, goods and capital to ensure economic activities.

In July 1951, the Director General of the Portuguese Overseas Administration Ministry proposed to the Director General of Civil Aviation to send a Technical Mission for Aerodromes to:

a) study and detail a construction project to build an international airport in Goa;

b) study improvements to be made immediately to allow the use of the existing airstrips at Dabolim, Mormugao, Daman and Diu to land light twin-engined aeroplanes; and

c) study the viability of establishing air connections with the three segments of Estado da India Portuguesa.

...
Wikipedia