‘While we do some metro-to-metro flying, we have now received a number of metro-to-non-metro cities like Bengaluru-Visakhapatnam, Bengaluru-Bhubaneswar, Bengaluru-Guwahati and Bengaluru-Kochi.’
Photograph: PTI Photo
Akasa Air will proceed to give attention to connecting metro and non-metro cities within the subsequent one to 2 years, its founder and CEO Vinay Dube stated.
The airline will begin working worldwide flights earlier than December, he added.
In its summer season schedule, the airline will function 751 weekly flights. By the tip of June, this quantity will rise to 925.
“Our focus goes to be on connecting the metros with tier-2 and tier-3 cities,” Dube stated. “While we do some metro-to-metro flying, we have now received a number of metro-to-non-metro cities like Bengaluru-Visakhapatnam, Bengaluru-Bhubaneswar, Bengaluru-Guwahati and Bengaluru-Kochi.”
“For a while, we’ll give attention to metro to non-metro connectivity… In this community planning time horizon (throughout the subsequent one to 2 years), that’s the place our focus goes to be,” Dube stated in an interview with Business Standard on the sidelines of the CAPA India Aviation Summit 2023.
Photograph: Kind courtesy Akasa Air/Facebook
Akasa Air operated its first business flight final August. It at the moment operates between 14 cities within the nation.
As per laws, solely airways with 20 planes can function worldwide flights.
“We have already got 19 plane in our fleet. We will launch our first worldwide flight by the tip of this calendar yr. Boeing 737 Max has superb vary functionality, most likely the perfect in its class, which can permit us to fly to West Asia, Southeast Asia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives, the Northeast of Africa, former CIS international locations. It has received a very good vary, however we have now not but narrowed down the place we’re going to fly,” Dube famous.
In November 2021, the airline ordered 72 B737 Max planes from Boeing.
Talking concerning the supply schedule, Dube stated the airline plans to have 20 planes within the first 12 months of its operation. “In each subsequent yr, we’ll get 12-14 plane,” he added.
IMAGE: Vinay Dube, founder and CEO, Akasa Air. Photograph: Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters
The airline is already contemplating putting one other plane order. “We have to safe our capability for the long run,” he stated.
The new plane order might be for greater than 100 planes, however the airline can’t say something past that, he stated.
The airline will enhance its worker power by about 50 per cent by March subsequent yr.
“We have a little bit over 2,000 workers proper now. The variety of workers that we’re going to have can be commensurate with our plane supply. Our worker quantity will proceed to trace in that order of magnitude. So, placing that in particular numbers, by the tip of this fiscal yr (by March 2024), we needs to be upwards of three,000,” Dube talked about.
The firm was specializing in workers throughout roles — flight attendants, engineers, pilots, and so forth, he stated.
“I believe our method is that we have now to proceed to be the employer of alternative to have the ability to entice expertise throughout the board… We are a particularly employee-centric firm, and that’s the place our focus is on — to guarantee that we get a disproportionate share of fine workers by being an employer of alternative,” he added.
Dube is proud of the efficiency of the airline since its first flight in August.
The airline’s ‘yields’ (that are the typical income earned from every passenger per kilometre of air journey) are unfolding as per its expectations.
“We have been both primary or quantity two relating to on-time efficiency for the reason that ministry of civil aviation began monitoring the info. Our load components have been within the low 80s past the primary 45-60 days,” he added.
“We are more than happy with each — our reliability and the response we have now had from our clients.”
Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff.com