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India’s newest airline, Akasa Air, is planning to launch its international operations, with the Middle East and Southeast Asia regions currently on its radar.
Akasa Air, which celebrated its one-year anniversary earlier this month, has now shifted its focus to launching its international routes since the August delivery of its 20th aircraft that allows the low-cost carrier to fly overseas based on requirements set by Indian authorities.
Speaking to India’s CNBC-TV18 this week, the airline’s co-founder Aditya Ghosh shed more light on Akasa Air’s global expansion. “We’re the fastest airline in India ever to have reached the point at which we are going to start international operations. We think that the five to six-hour range is ideally suited not just to our type of aircraft, but also where the demand sits — the SAARC countries, Middle East, and Southeast Asia,” he stated.
Ghosh did not highlight which countries the airline was targeting in the Middle East.
The airline has been eyeing an international launch this year, alluding to its plans at the Paris Air Show in June where Akasa Air placed an order for four Boeing 737 Max jets, as a follow-up to a 72 aircraft order book, which includes 23 737-8s and 53 high-capacity 737-8-200 aircraft. The airline said at the time that it was on course to announce another significant three-digit aircraft order by the end of 2023, while also launching its international operations before the end of the year.
(Writing by Bindu Rai, editing by Seban Scaria)
