India’s newest airline Akasa Air commenced operations barely a week before the death of its celebrated co-founder Rakesh Jhunjhunwala. Even as they mourn the untimely demise of the ‘Big Bull’, Vinay Dube, founder and CEO of Akasa Air, announced that the airline has received its third aircraft and is “well-capitalised”.
Thanking the late trader, who was the biggest investor in the budget airline in which his family owned 45 per cent stake, Dube asserted that the carrier is financially viable to induct 72 aircraft over the next five years.
Sharing that they have received their third aircraft in Delhi yesterday, the CEO said that it will be put into operation on the Mumbai-Bengaluru sector shortly. We will continue to grow our fleet by adding one new aircraft every two weeks.
While these are gratifying moments in our journey, we at Akasa Air continue to mourn the passing of Mr Jhunjhunwala. For those of us at Akasa that got to know him and whose lives he has touched, this is a deep personal loss, he added.
Dube added that the airline will always be grateful to the ace investor. “Thanks in no small part to Mr. Jhunjhunwala, for which we will always be grateful, Akasa Air is a well-capitalised airline with the financial means to induct 72 aircraft over the next five years,” he noted.
Akasa Air’s financial platform is strong enough for them to place an aircraft order significantly larger than their first in the next 18 months. “In simple terms, our growth is secure,” the chief executive underscored.
He further expressed his gratitude to Jhunjhunwala for supporting them in “recruiting some of the best aviation talent in the country”. “He wanted us to have a top-notch leadership team that made all day-to-day decisions at the airline without having to fall back on him or any other investor,” Dube said, adding that Jhunjhunwala was proud of the airline’s employees and partners.
“Mr Jhunjhunwala recognised India’s potential as one of the fastest-growing aviation markets in the world with an unparalleled potential and decades of progress ahead of us. He was a true believer in India’s potential and saw Akasa Air serving our nation by building the transportation links that will support India’s ongoing economic transformation,” said Dube.
Widely known as India’s own Warren Buffett, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala passed away on August 14 due to prolonged illness.
