In 1948, Air India International, then owned by Tata Sons Ltd., was granted status to operate international services from India as the designated flag carrier. The Government of India took a 49% stake in the company including an option to purchase a majority interest at their discretion and awarded a 10 year management contract to J.R.D. Tata to run the airline.

One of Air India's first acts under this new mandate was to order Lockheed L-749 Constellations in order to inaugurate international service. The first L-749 registered VT-CQS was delivered in March 1948, quickly followed by two others. In June 1948, the first international flight from Bombay to London was operated via Cairo and Geneva by an L-749 registered VT-CQP. In total, Air India received 3 L-749 base model aircraft.

Later that year, Lockheed developed the L-749A which offered an additional 2000kg of payload and Air India decided to replace their existing fleet of brand new L-749s with this variant. Fortunately, Qantas was a willing customer for these older airframes. The first sale of "Mughal Princess" was completed in December 1949 and the sale of "Rajput Princess" in April 1951.