Akasa Air.
| Photo Credit: RAMAKRISHNA G

Domestic carrier Akasa Air has commenced its international operations with its inaugural overseas flight departing from Mumbai to Doha, Qatar.

In a statement on Thursday, the airline said it has been granted traffic rights for three other international destinations — Kuwait, Jeddah, and Riyadh.

Akasa will be rapidly expanding its global footprint in the coming months, the statement said.

Further, the airline said with its conveniently timed flight schedule, travellers from other domestic cities such as Ahmedabad, Goa, Varanasi, Lucknow, Bengaluru, Kochi, and Delhi will also have multiple connecting options for travel to and from Doha via Mumbai.

Domestically, Akasa operates from a host of cities including Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kochi, among others.

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.)

An Akasa Air passenger aircraft taxis on the tarmac at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai. File
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Akasa Air on Friday said it will start international operations with flight services to Doha starting from March 28.

“Starting 28 March 2024, Akasa Air will operate four non-stop flights a week, connecting Mumbai with Doha, enhancing air connectivity between Qatar and India,” the airline said in a release.

Akasa Air Founder and CEO Vinay Dube said its foray into Qatar marks the next phase of growth as it continues the journey towards becoming one of the world’s top 30 airlines by the turn of this decade.

Currently, the airline, which started flying in August 2022, operates 23 Boeing 737 Max aircraft.

NEW DELHI:

The chief executives of Air India and Akasa Air have privately exchanged barbs over the poaching of pilots, with the latter accusing its bigger rival of rule violations, provoking a reply that collusion to curb job switching can breach competition law.

The exchange, detailed in a Sept. 21 letter seen by Reuters, spotlights growing competition in India’s aviation market, as a strong rebound in air travel after the pandemic, coupled with a flurry of orders for new aircraft, led to a shortage of pilots.

The rare verbal and written confrontations between the airlines’ chief executives were detailed in the letter, sent by Campbell Wilson of Air India, which is owned by the Tata Group conglomerate, to Vinay Dube of low-cost airline Akasa.

It followed a telephone call between them and a missive Dube had sent expressing his concerns to the Tata Group.

The Sept 21 letter shows Air India pushed back after Akasa accused it of contravening government policies that mandate a notice period of six to 12 months for pilots, rules that Indian pilots’ groups are challenging in court.

Wilson told his counterpart the government rules were “not currently enforceable”, adding that Akasa itself had “previously engaged in the same actions” by poaching pilots from Tata Group’s budget carrier, Air India Express, and other airlines.

“It was a little surprising to us that Akasa now found the practice objectionable,” Wilson wrote in the letter, which Reuters is reporting for the first time.

Akasa did not comment on its communication with Air India, but said the issue of pilot exits was “now behind us … we are squarely back in growth mode”.

Air India declined to comment and the two chief executives did not respond to requests for comment.

The dispute comes at the time of a hiring spree by Air India, with its arm, Air India Express, seeking to more than triple its fleet to 170 over five years.

In recent weeks, Akasa has lost about a tenth of its 450 pilots, who left without serving out notice periods, some to join Air India Express.

In September, Akasa said it feared a shutdown and sued some pilots, as well as the aviation watchdog, for not coming to its aid, in lawsuits still pending in the courts.

In his letter, Wilson added that he had “cautioned” Dube during their telephone call that asking a competitor to collude in curbing employees’ rights to switch employers “could be construed as potentially a contravention of competition law”.

“I regret that you interpreted my courtesy of taking your call and listening to your request as assent,” he added.

The Federation of Indian Pilots has described the alleged mass resignations from Akasa as an “indication” of employee discontent, while India’s aviation watchdog has said it cannot interfere in matters related to employment contracts.

India’s newest airline, Akasa started flying in 2022, garnering a market share of 4%. It competes with IndiGo, which commands a share of 60% and Tata Group’s airlines that together have a share of 25.7%.

In the Sept 21 letter, Air India’s Wilson expressed the hope that Akasa would make investments to “attract, retain and develop” its own staff, adding that his airline looked forward to “continuing healthy competition”.

Mumbai:

An Akasa aircraft from Mumbai with 166 people onboard made an emergency landing at Varanasi airport on Friday after the airline received a bomb threat message on social media, according to an airline spokesperson.

The airline said the captain of the flight QP 1498 received an “emergency alert” from the Varanasi Air Traffic Controller and followed all required emergency procedures and landed the plane safely at Varanasi.

“At 1130 am, Akasa Air got a bomb threat message on social media. We informed the local police in Mumbai and initiated the procedure for filing an FIR,” the spokesperson said.

Subsequently, the emergency response mechanism was put in place and as part of the security protocol, the airline informed all the 16 airports from where it operates about the bomb threat and put them on alert, the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said the threat was later categorised as “non-specific”.

According to the airline, there were 166 people onboard, including 159 passengers, 1 infant and 6 operating operating crew members in the Mumbai-Varanasi flight.

Varanasi Airport Director Puneet Gupta said that after a thorough security check, nothing objectionable was found and the aircraft was declared safe.

“Akasa Air flight QP 1498, flying from Mumbai to Varanasi on September 29, 2023 received an emergency alert from Air Traffic Control. The captain followed all required emergency procedures and landed safely in Varanasi,” the airline said in a statement.

The airline said that all the mandated security procedures have been completed and the aircraft has subsequently been declared safe.

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

An Akasa Air passenger aircraft. File.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Newly launched budget carrier Akasa Air has moved the Delhi High Court seeking a direction to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to act against pilots who left the airline without serving their mandatory notice period.

Akasa Air, which operated its first commercial flight between Mumbai and Ahmedabad on August 7, 2022, has seen several pilots resign, affecting its operations. The airline told the High Court that it was in a “state of crisis” because of these resignations and had to cancel multiple flights every day this month.

The High Court has listed the airline’s plea for further hearing on September 22. The court also queried the DGCA as to what action it takes in case flights have to be cancelled due to pilots’ resignations.

‘Coercive action’

SNV Aviation Private Limited, which flies under the brand name Akasa Air, has sought a direction to the DGCA to “take coercive action against pilots who fail to comply with the mandatory notice period requirements, in terms of the Civil Aviation Requirement”.

“We have sought legal remedy only against a small set of pilots who abandoned their duties and left without serving their mandatory contractual notice period,” an Akasa Air statement said. “Not only is this illegal in law but also an unethical and selfish act that disrupted flights in August forcing last minute cancellations that stranded thousands of customers causing significant inconvenience to the travelling public,” it added.

(With PTI inputs)