Akasa Air expects to operate over 150 weekly flights by Sep-end

NEW DELHI: Akasa Air, which commenced services on the Bengaluru-Mumbai route on Friday, expects to operate more than 150 weekly flights by the end of September.

The airline started operations on August 7 and now flies on three routes -- Mumbai-Ahmedabad, Bengaluru-Kochi and Bengaluru-Mumbai.

For now, the airline will operate two flights daily in each direction on the Bengaluru-Mumbai route.

''Further expanding its operations on the Bengaluru-Mumbai route, the airline will commence one additional daily flight from August 30, 2022, and another from September 19, 2022,'' it said in a release.

It will also start a new route connecting Bengaluru with Chennai from September 10.

According to the carrier, it expects to cross 150 weekly flights by end of September.

Akasa Air has already announced flights for six routes across five cities -- Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Kochi, Bengaluru and Chennai.

Currently, the carrier has three planes and the third one was received on August 16. It plans to add one new aircraft every two weeks and its fleet size will be 18 aircraft by the end of March 2023.

Over the next four years, the airline will add 54 additional aircraft, taking its total fleet size to 72 planes.

On August 17, days after the passing away of Akasa Air's key investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, the airline's CEO Vinay Dube said the carrier is well-capitalised and its growth is secure with the financial means to place an order for more planes.

''Thanks in no small part to 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.

''In fact, our financial platform is strong enough to allow Akasa to place an aircraft order in the next 18 months that will be significantly larger than our first. In simple terms, our growth is secure,'' Dube had said.