India’s newest airline, backed by ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Akasa Air has received its first Boeing aircraft which is expected to land here in India on June 21. Airline’s CEO Vinay Dube on Friday revealed that people can start booking tickets on the airline from very early July or first week of July.
He also reflected upon the recent hike in the Air Turbine Fuel while allaying fears of higher prices on the airline. Akasa Airlines is entering the market at a time when a 15 per cent hike in ATF price has been seen, however, Dube said that this is “not something that worries us”.
Whether fuel is at $120 or $50, the aviation industry not just in India but around the world has always been competitive and it is for the benefit of the consumers because the consumer should feel happy that the aviation industry is as competitive as it is,” he told ET Now.
Dube shared that with the new age Boeing 737 Max aircraft – one of the most fuel efficient and greenest aircraft in the world, they will have the youngest fleet of these new age aircrafts. “As far as fuel price is concerned, we feel quite confident that we will be able to compete no matter where the fuel price is,” he stated further.
‘Very affordable fares’
I am here to tell you that at Akasa, we hope to have very affordable fares for our consumers as well as a level of customer service that is warm, friendly, and comfortable. We hope that we will be able to provide our consumers with a very good travel experience and extremely affordable fares, the CEO explained.
The airline, which plans to start commercial operations by the end of July, is currently expecting to get an air operator’s permit which will allow them to publish their schedule and open up for sale. “We need the aircraft to land and go through proving flights before we can get an air operator’s permit. It all happens under the direct supervision of our regulator, the Director General of Civil Aviation,” Dube shared.
Routes and sectors for Akasa
Further, spilling the beans on the routes and the sectors Akasa Air is currently looking at, the chief executive shared that the carrier will be looking to serve sectors between metro cities, tier two, and tier three cities.
We have got 737 Max aircraft; it is a midsized narrow body. We will not be able to fly with that aircraft into an extremely small city with a population of three, four, five hundred thousand. Of course, I am equating population with the size of a runway and the length of the runway. So, we will focus on the metro cities and tier two and tier three cities, he noted.
Meanwhile, Akasa Air last month announced that its airline code will be “QP”
