More pilots at Akasa Air would be flying today if Boeing’s aircraft delivery were timely, the airline’s founder and CEO Vinay Dube tells The Hindu.

“Is it a reality that we were supposed to get more aircraft, and therefore we should have seen a larger percentage of pilots clocking flying hours or in training? Yes, absolutely,” Mr. Dube told The Hindu in a telephonic conversation

Out of 775 pilots “hired for flying” at Akasa Air, 60% of them are able to log flying hours. Most of the remaining 300 pilots will also be able to fly by 2025-end. Pilots were hired with a 18-24 month timeline in mind before they start flying, keeping in mind the long training footprint for the final batch of 200-300 pilots that joined the airline without a prior Boeing 737 experience, as well as six-months of notice period to be served by new hires at their previous organisation, Mr. Dube said countering allegations from a set of pilots that it was hoarding pilots

The airline received three Boeing 737 MAX 8s in the calendar year 2024, after adding a plane per month since it launched operations in August 2022 because of delays in deliveries from Boeing because of heightened regulatory oversight for it following a mid-air blowout of a door-plug on Alaskan Air in January 2024. Later, a 55-day strike by machinists too brought production to a halt. It will add its 27th aircraft next week. If the airline had continued to grow its fleet at the rate it did in 2022 and 2023, it would be closing the financial year 2025 with nearly 42 aircraft in its fleet.

The top executive declined to provide the number of aircraft deliveries likely in calendar year 2025, but said that it was taking a conservative estimate of the deliveries originally planned for the year. Boeing has also conveyed to the airline that it will deliver some shortfalls from 2024 over the next 12 to 24 months, but Mr Dube said that they were not drawing their plans for the ongoing calendar year based on this promise.

The airline is also “100% current” on its pre-delivery payments to Boeing and won’t be leasing any planes.

In a bid to assuage employee concerns, Mr Dube said, “Akasa’s strength is its employee-centric approach. We have made a commitment to them and we will stick by that commitment. We are a well capitalised airline, we have a strong strategy and we are here for the long term.”

But he refused to confirm or deny media reports that the consortium of family offices of Azim Premji and Ranjan Pai were in talks for acquiring a minority stake in the airline for USD 100 million.

On the issue of rest and duty hours for pilots regarding which the DGCA held another meeting with airlines and pilot grouping last year ahead of Delhi High Court ultimatum for reaching a consensus, Mr Dube said “best practice solutions” for managing fatigue should be adopted.

New Delhi:

India has “incredibly affordable” airfares and the country’s aviation market has the kind of growth potential where Akasa Air as well as other carriers can do well, according to the nearly two-year-old airline’s chief Vinay Dube.

As Akasa Air prepares to take the international skies on March 28 with the first overseas flight from Mumbai to Doha, Dube also asserted that the airline is not about “marketing gimmicks”. Akasa Air is aiming to be among the world’s top 30 airlines by 2030 and will go public in future.

“We think we have a great financial future. Listing is in our future… but you never say never. We hope to list some day,” he told PTI in an interview this week.

While acknowledging that aviation competition has always been intense, he said that as long as the focus is on fundamentals, there is enough room not just for Akasa Air to thrive in the future but for others as well.

“Thanks to the growth that we are going to see in India, it is not that Akasa will do well only if someone else does badly, no, Akasa can do well and others can do well, that is the kind of growth that India has to offer,” the airline’s Founder and CEO said.

The carrier, which started flying in August 2022, has a fleet of 24 planes and a domestic market share of 4.5 per cent.

To a query about air ticket prices, Dube said the country has some of the cheapest airfares.

India, which is one of the world’s fastest-growing civil aviation markets, is also seen in some quarters as price sensitive, especially with rising number of air travellers, including first-time fliers. There have been concerns, mainly during festival seasons, that air ticket prices are high.

“I see fares to be some of the cheapest in the world as I saw them three months ago, six months ago… I think Indian airfares when you compare them to parts of Europe, East Asia, North America, you compare to any decent-sized aviation economy in the world, India has some of the most affordable airfares by a long margin, not just by Rs 10 or 100… Indian airfares are incredibly affordable,” Dube said.

Travel portal Cleartrip’s outgoing CEO Ayyappan Rajagopal said airfares are expected to go up, both on international and domestic segments, as there is high demand and more people are making bookings in advance.

“In the premium segment, the (price) sensitivity is not so high. There is a second set of consumers, they are a lot more bothered about pricing and they might even take three hops to reach a destination,” he told PTI.

Meanwhile, Akasa Air’s Dube said there is no shortage of pilots at the airline and that there won’t be any flight disruptions.

The revised flight duty time limitation norms that provide for increased rest time for pilots will come into force from June 1.

“We have got around 700 pilots at Akasa. We have no pilot shortage. I don’t want to just say no without giving numbers as you can make your own calculations on what an airline with 24 aircraft requires when it comes to pilots.

“We are focused on creating a highly reliable network. We want to be India’s most on-time airline. We want to make sure we have the lowest cancellation rate,” Dube said.

On whether there could be disruptions once the revised norms are implemented, he replied in the negative.

“Absolutely, 100 per cent you are not going to see disruptions… Reliability is intrinsic to everything we do at Akasa. Nobody should expect any disruptions in June,” he noted.

Regarding bilateral air traffic rights, the Akasa Air chief said there is plenty of room for international expansion.

Some Gulf carriers have been seeking enhanced flying rights to operate more flights to and from the country. However, the government is not in favour of granting more bilateral flying rights.

“I think that there may be a couple of markets in the entire Gulf where bilaterals have saturated like Dubai and Sharjah, the best I know but places like Abu Dhabi have a lot of capacity, Dammam has open skies, we have got Riyadh, Jeddah, Kuwait, I think there is room in Bahrain, Muscat.

“So, if you ask me particularly about the Middle East, I don’t see issues. South East Asia has a lot of capacity in almost every market. So, I think we are good that there is plenty of room for expansion internationally,” Dube said.

When asked whether there is any particular tag that Akasa Air would like to be identified with, Dube said that personally, he does not like such a tag.

“We are India’s most on-time airline, lowest cancellation rates, best baggage… literally, we have got the best leg room in India, take your tape, measure out and measure it, we have got USB ports increasing in flights, the quality of food is fantastic, we think we have got some of the best-trained staff.

“… I don’t have a tag, Akasa is not about marketing gimmicks. We are really there to serve the people with the best customer service,” he said. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)