Kenya-based cargo airline Astral Aviation to enter Indian skies

Astral Aviation (Pic: Reuters)

In a new development for the aviation sector in India, a new Kenya-based cargo airline Astral Aviation is going to enter the market under Pradhaan Air brand with an A320F plane.

Twitter user Soumojit Sarkar posted a picture of the plane from Astral Aviation announcing the arrival of Astral's plane in India.

#Avgeeks New Indian Cargo Airline?@dipalay @Vinamralongani
Any idea??#aviation #aviationphotography #cargo pic.twitter.com/DBkLLKPX67

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— Soumojit Sarkar ️ (@soumojit_aero) July 5, 2022

Akasa Air's strategy of flying Boeing 737 Max jets from major cities to smaller villages comes at a time when Indigo, Air India, and SpiceJet vie for dominance on busier, cutthroat routes connecting big cities.

Astral is looking to future freighter additions, primarily from the Airbus stable

Astral founder and chief executive Sanjeev Gadhia said, "Ghadia says: “In addition to the two A320Fs which have been acquired from Vaayu, which are the first converted A320Fs in the world, we have also signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) to acquire two A321Fs by 2023 and four A330-300Fs (delivery between 2024 and 2025) while we are negotiating to acquire two A330-200Fs (2023-4) and four B777-300ERFs (2024-5)," reported Air Cargo News.

“We are very impressed with the Airbus freighter products and the support that has been given from Airbus, EFW and ST Engineering in inducting the A320F; hence we remain confident in acquiring more Airbus freighters,” he added, as per the report.

Ghadia added that while he remains confident about the African market, the plan is to continue to position Astral as a global airline because some of the freighters will operate “beyond the skies of Africa” to regions such as China, South Korea, India, the UAE, and Europe, according to the report.