Akasa Air, India's newest airline, begins its flight operations between Pune and Bengaluru today. Pune, the carrier's second city in Maharashtra after Mumbai, is the ninth location on its network. Beginning today, the airline will operate two daily flights on the Bengaluru-Pune route; starting on December 10, 2022, there will be additional daily flights connecting the two IT centres. Akasa Air announced earlier in November that Visakhapatnam would become the tenth location on its network. Flights between the two cities are expected to begin on December 10, 2022, and a second frequency will be added on December 12, 2022.


COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

Since its launch in August this year, Akasa Air has been progressively scaling up its operations, and by mid-December expects to cross over 450 weekly flights on a total of fourteen routes across ten cities - Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Kochi, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Guwahati, Agartala, Pune, and Visakhapatnam. This rapid expansion of cities, routes, and frequencies is in line with the airline’s vision of adopting a phased yet rapid approach to grow its network across India.


Also read: Toddler becomes ‘NIGHTMARE’ for passengers on 8-hour-long flight: WATCH video


Commenting on the maiden flight and the new route, Praveen Iyer, Co-Founder, and Chief Commercial of Officer Akasa Air, said, “Commencement of operations on this route is a momentous occasion as we expand our footprint in Maharashtra by adding Pune to our network. Both Pune and Bengaluru are important IT hubs, and enhanced connectivity on this route, backed by affordable fares, are in line with our purpose to strengthen important transportation links of our country, which will provide a boost to economic development. We will soon launch another daily flight on this route from December 10 onwards, taking daily departures from Pune to three convenient options through the day.”


Akasa Air started its commercial operations with two aircraft and has subsequently received nine aircraft to date. It will continue to grow its network to establish a strong pan-India presence focusing on the metro to tier 2 & 3 route connectivity, using a fleet expansion plan that adds one new aircraft every 15 days. Akasa Air’s fleet size will be 18 aircraft by the end of March 2023, and over the next four years, the airline will add 54 additional aircraft, taking its total fleet size to 72 aircraft.