Interview | Akasa Air: Will get first aircraft in April, flights from May or June, says founder
The Hindu
The country’s newest airline will acquire 18 aircraft in the first year and focus on domestic routes, before launching international flights, says Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Vinay Dube.
The country’s newest airline, Akasa Air, expects to get its first aircraft in April 2022 and launch operations by May or June. In the first 18 months, it will serve domestic routes with a focus on metro to tier-2 cities and, thereafter, expand to international destinations. Vinay Dube, Akasa Air’s founder, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, shared his plans for the airline with in an e-mail interview.
We expect our first aircraft delivery in the second half of April 2022 with the intention to start commercial operations by late May or early June of 2022.
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The Union Budget unveiled on February 1, 2025, has come at a time of unprecedented global uncertainty and a flagging domestic economy. The real GDP growth is estimated at 6.4% for 2024-25 and between 6.3-6.8% for 2025-26, a far cry from >8 percent growth required annually to make India a developed nation by 2047. While much attention has been devoted to the demand stimulus through income tax cuts, not enough is said about the proposed reforms in urban development, tariff rationalisation, and regulatory simplification aimed at making Indian cities and corporates more competitive. Since the majority of economic activity is located in cities (urban areas account for ~55% of GDP) and produced by large corporates (~40% of the national output and 55% of India’s exports), the above-mentioned reforms have a pivotal role in improving India’s trend growth rate. Below we unpack each reform.