Akasa Air to place 'three-digit' order for aircraft in 2023, plans to fly internationally by year-end: CEO

Few airlines have generated as much interest as Akasa Air. The last two major ones to start were AirAsia India and Vistara.

"We will be placing a much larger aircraft order by the end of the year; the order will be in 3 digits," Vinay Dube, the CEO of Akasa Air, told CNBC-TV18.
He added that the larger order is not just about Akasa Air, but also about India's future story. "We will be part of India’s bright future with that large aircraft order," he said.

The airline expecting to have 25 aircraft in its fleet by the end of this year and fly internationally as well. "At this point we don’t have a short list of routes where we want to fly internationally yet but we will be ready to fly by the end of the year," Dube said.

He added that the airline will add an aircraft every 15 days till it reaches 20 aircraft and then slow down to 12 to 15 aircraft addition each year. "We expect to go to 72 aircraft by the end of five years. Will slow down addition to fleet in FY24," he said.

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At present, the airline has 2,000 employees, which is around 100 to 110 employees per aircraft, which is in line with the global average, Dube said. "We will be looking to hire 300 pilots alone in the next 12 months," he added.

Talking about Akasa's passenger load factor, Dube said it is at 83 percent, which puts the airline at the top of the table when compared with new airlines.

"There is a natural difference in PLF between new players and older players which is playing out. We are a carrier that prides itself with regards to customer experience and service," he said, adding that market share is not a statistic the airline is tracking. It is looking at being a market leader in customer experience.

"It doesn’t bother us to have fewer aircraft compared to our competitors," he said.

The also airline has plans of going public, but Dube said it is several years away from doing that, Dube said.

Akasa Airline's promoter, ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala passed away in August last year, just a few days after the airline was launched. "There's a real tinge of sadness when we speak about Mr Jhunjhunwala's passing.

What we can do to honour his legacy is to run a good airline," Dube said.
He added that the airline has achieved many milestones in six months of operations and taken possession of 18 aircraft, so far. "We are flying 23 unique routes over a 100 flights daily; have delivered what we said we’d deliver," he said.