Akasa Air operates its maiden flight from Chennai

NEW DELHI: India's new airline Akasa Air on Saturday inaugurated its first flight from Chennai, the fifth city in its network, enabling the airline to offer twice-daily flights in each direction on the Chennai-Bengaluru route.

Further expanding its operations from Chennai, the airline will start one additional daily flight from September 15 on the Chennai-Mumbai route and will add an additional daily flight on the Chennai-Bengaluru route from September 26.

In addition, strengthening its pan-India network connectivity, the airline has also added a new route between Chennai and Kochi, which will commence from September 26.

This rapid expansion of cities, routes and frequencies is in line with the airline's vision of adopting a phased but rapid approach to grow its network across India.

Commenting on the maiden flight and the new route, Praveen Iyer, Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer, Akasa Air, said, "We have achieved yet another milestone today with the launch of commercial flights from Chennai, which is the fifth city in our network. From today, we will offer double-daily flights in each direction on this new route.

"Within the next five days, we will strengthen our network from Chennai by connecting to Mumbai, the financial capital of India, which will become operational from September 15. On September 26, with the start of the Chennai-Kochi route we will further strengthen our connectivity from Chennai."

Iyer added, "The increased capacities across these key focus cities backed by affordable fares will provide our customers many options to choose from while planning their travel. We are delighted to augment our network to meet our commitment of progressively adding more cities along new sectors."

The airline started its commercial operations with two aircraft and has subsequently received four aircraft till now.

It will continue to grow its fleet with a view to establish a strong pan-India presence with a focus on key cities and metro to tier-2 and 3 route connectivity.

Akasa Air's fleet size will be 18 aircraft by the end of March 2023 and over the next four years, the airline will add 54 additional aircraft, taking its total fleet size to 72.