In the 100th year of India's civil aviation history, when the first air flight between Karachi and Delhi was started by the Indian State Air Services in 1912, the national carrier Air India (AI) is all but grounded. A year that should have seen firecrackers and celebrations is, instead, passing through serial fiascos, with the airline staring at the possibility of a lock-out —it’s third — after 1971 and 1973.