Indian start-up Akasa Air will operate its first commercial flight on 7 August, with an initial network of four domestic points.
The carrier, backed by Indian billionaire Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, will fly between Mumbai and Ahmedabad on its launch day, operating up to 28 weekly flights.
A week later, it will launch flights between Bengaluru and Kochi, with frequencies up to 28 times weekly as well.
Chief commercial officer and co-founder Praveen Iyer says Akasa will “adopt a phased approach to support our network expansion plans”, but did not indicate where else the airline intends to fly to.
Akasa chief Vinay Dube had previously told FlightGlobal in early 2022 that the low-cost carrier will initially focus on operating flights from major Indian cities – known as ‘metros’ locally – to what are known as ‘tier-two’ and ‘tier-three’ cities.
The airline took delivery of its first Boeing 737 Max 8 in Seattle in June. It is the first of 72 737 Max jets that Akasa ordered at the 2021 Dubai air show. That order comprises a mix of Max 8s with 189 seats and high-capacity Max 8-200s with 197 seats.
In its latest statement, Iyer says Akasa intends to add two aircraft per month in its first year of operations. The carrier previously disclosed plans to receive 18 jets by March 2023.
