Vinay Dube, founder-CEO of Akasa, said on Wednesday that it is “within much less than a decade going to be among the top thirty airlines globally,” in an email to his employees as the airline turned 2 years old.
Though there are uncertainties regarding new plane deliveries from Boeing, Dube assured employees that “…we are well positioned for much higher growth than many people had thought possible” and that Akasa became the “only Indian airline ever to have made such a big firm book order (226 MAX) in just 17 months since commencing operations… Setting the stage for an unprecedented growth.”
On Wednesday, Dube had a Town Hall with the pilots. There are close to 800 pilots at present and the fleet size of this company is 24 planes. The last MAX was delivered by Boeing to them this February. Now pilots are worrying more about slow training and very low flying hours which have diluted their pay checks. During Wednesday’s Town Hall meeting, some pilots raised this issue with the founder-CEO. It’s currently looking how fast Boeing can deliver those planes and will decide whether they should also look out for other options accordingly.
This was funded by late big bull Rakesh Jhunjhun wala and has its first flight from Mumbai to Ahmedabad on Aug 7, 2022. Since then, over 1.1 crore passengers have flown using these services according to Akasa Airlines. “Akasa Air has registered triple-digit growth and continues to be the fastest-growing airline in global aviation history,” it said in a statement.
Dube stated: “Two years ago we started on a journey aimed at redefining air travel; today I am happy to say we achieved our purpose while maintaining reliability, excellent service delivery at affordable rates.… In the last year alone we remained India’s foremost punctual performer even as we registered improved operational dependability besides having industry’s lowest cancellations and customer complaints. Without the commitment of more than 4000 Akasians, whose energy and enthusiasm have been the engine behind our collective accomplishments, these milestones would not have been achieved.”
Currently, it operates over 900 weekly flights with 22 domestic and five international cities being connected by Akasa.
