Akasa’s inaugural flight between Mumbai-Ahmedabad has been sold out.
According to sources, the airline is aiming at over 70 per cent Passenger Load Factor (PLF) for other flights. The airline will soon launch the Mumbai-Delhi route as well.
Bookings in full swing
Multiple sources told BusinessLine that the inaugural flight on August 7 between Mumbai and Ahmedabad is fully booked. .
One of the people said, “The bookings are in full swing, the airline is extremely happy at the pace at which it is going. It is aiming for over 70 per cent of the flights to be full in the inaugural week.”
Back in February 2021, BusinessLine was the first to report quoting sources that two erstwhile Jet Airways executives: former CEO Vinay Dube and Senior Executive Praveen Iyer had plans to launch a new low-cost carrier. Later that year, ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala invested ₹200 crore for a 40 per cent stake in the airline.
On July 22, 2022, Akasa Air opened bookings for ticket sales of its first commercial flight and unveiled its customer experience strategy with several category-first services and product choices.
Inaugural phase
Akasa announced an additional 28 weekly direct flights on its newly launched sector between Bengaluru and Mumbai starting August 19, 2022. With this, Akasa Air will have completed the inaugural phase of its network development across key cities like Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Kochi, and Bengaluru, making a total of 82 weekly flights available within the first few weeks of its operations.
Another source said that Akasa will “very soon” launch the Mumbai-Delhi route without specifying a timeline.
The airline took the delivery of the second aircraft on Tuesday. “The timely induction of the aircraft to the airline’s fleet will help boost Akasa Air’s operations and its phased approach to support network expansion plans.” Akasa Air aims to induct 18 aircraft by the end of March 2023, focusing on connecting metro cities to tier-2 and tier-3 cities. It plans to add another 12 to 14 planes every 12 months, which will make up its order of 72 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, delivered over five years.