Vayudoot was a regional airline in India established on 20 January 1981 as a joint venture between the two state-owned carriers, Indian Airlines and Air India. The airline was headquartered at New Delhi's Safdarjung Airport. The airline was originally conceived to serve Northeast India. The regional hub for the region was Calcutta and the airline flew to close to 30 destinations in this challenging area. Many of the airfields saw the resumption of commercial flights and fixed-wing aircraft after many decades of their absence.

The Dornier 228 is a twin-turboprop STOL utility aircraft, designed and first manufactured by Dornier GmbH from 1981 until 1998. Two hundred and forty-five were built in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany. In 1983, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) bought a production licence and manufactured another 125 aircraft in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India. In July 2017, 63 aircraft were still in airline service.