Akasa Air aims to operate over 250 flights per week on nine domestic routes by October

Newly-launched carrier Akasa Air is aiming for over 250 flights per week operating over nine domestic routes by the second week of October, the airline said on Friday as it announced entry in the highly-competitive Delhi market.

The airline, founded by late stock market investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala along with aviation industry veteran Vinay Dube, launched its operations on August 7 with a flight to Ahmedabad from the financial capital.

Since then, it has expanded the route network to Chennai, Kochi, Bengaluru.

The airline, in a statement, said it is adding Delhi as its sixth destination, connecting Bengaluru and Ahmedabad, starting October 7, with the induction of fifth aircraft in the fleet.

Besides, it will also commence an additional daily flight on the Ahmedabad-Bengaluru route from October 7.

"With our fifth aircraft coming into operations shortly, we will achieve the milestone of 250 flights per week soon.

"Apart from flights between Delhi and Bengaluru, we further augment our network between Bengaluru and Ahmedabad by adding the second frequency between this route," said Praveen Iyer, co-founder and chief commercial officer, Akasa Air.

On the launch of flight operations from Delhi, he said, "As Indian air travellers continue to return to travel in promising numbers, Delhi has been witnessing significant revival in passenger traffic.

"We look forward to catering to the growing demand and continue adding more destinations on our network."

Akasa said it has been aggressively scaling up operations and will cross 250 flights per week by October 10, 2022, covering nine routes.

Akasa Air's fleet size will be 18 aircraft by the end of March 2023 and over the next four years, the airline will add 54 additional aircraft, taking its total fleet size to 72 aircraft, it stated.