Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed Akasa Air: All you need to know about India's newest low-cost airline

Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed Akasa Air plans to fly 18 aircraft by the end of March 2023 across domestic routes in the country, focusing on metro to tier-2 and tier-3 cities.

Akasa Air Boeing 737 Max

Ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala backed Akasa Air, India's newest airline, has revealed the first image of its Boeing 737 Max airplane parked at the Boeing production facility in the USA's Portland as it gets ready for delivery. As seen in the image, the Boeing plane is wearing the brand's Orange and Purple coloured livery, a new for the Indian market. Akasa Air, the low cost airline is expected to start its operations in July 2022 after a slight delay and placed a massive order of 72 Boeing 737 Max family of aircrafts, one of the largest orders for the Max plane globally. We decode what exactly is Akasa Air and what new does it bring to the table?

Founders

Akasa Air is backed by ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, who is the co-founder of the newest airline and owns 40% of the company. Ex-Jet Airways CEO Vinay Dube will be the CEO of Akasa Air with a 15 per cent stake. The brand is also looking to hire other industry leaders at the top spot before beginning of the operations.

Quite Proud to announce our airline code - QP! pic.twitter.com/7oiClGqUj1

— Akasa Air (@AkasaAir) May 17, 2022

Airline Code

Akasa Air recently received its code from DGCA (Director General of Civil Aviation) and will be called 'QP'. Akasa Air is the newest airline in India, unlike Jet Airways that will start India operations again with 9W code.

Aircraft Fleet

The airline plans to operate approximately 70 planes in the next four years and has placed an order of 72 Boeing 737 Max aircrafts. The deal was signed at the 2022 Dubai Air Show. The Max 8 aircraft is the same single aisle aircraft that was grounded after a couple of deadly crashes in late 2019. Following modifications and clearance from the FAA, DGCA has also approved operations to resume in India. Earlier Airbus' Chief Commercial Officer Christian Scherer mentioned that Airbus is in conversation with Akasa for an aircraft procurement deal.

Start Date

SNV Aviation under which Akasa will fly says that the airline brand is targeting Summer 2022 to start the operations in India. While Akasa earlier targeted June to start operations, it now says that they can only take the first flight as early as July. Akasa Air has already received the No Objection Certificate to operate flights in India. 

Routes

Akasa Air plans to offer flights across India with an "endeavour to be the nation's most dependable, affordable and greenest airline". While no announcement has been made in this regards, it is expected the Akasa will serve the major domestic routes with the ultra low cost airline to attract the potential flyers. The company recently announced plans to fly 18 aircraft by the end of March 2023 across domestic routes in the country, focusing on metro to tier-2 and tier-3 cities.