The newest Indian carrier to get the approvals to fly international – Akasa Air, has announced to operate daily flights to Port Blair from December 15 onwards. With this announcement, Port Blair becomes the 17th destination of the air carrier’s list. The low-cost airline started operations in August last year, and it currently operates flights to 16 cities in India, including all majors like Delhi, Mumbai, Goa, Kochi, Hyderabad and more. Akasa Air will now Port Blair with Bengaluru via Chennai, without any change of aircraft needed at Chennai.
“The start of operations in the Andamans is yet another step towards our continuous efforts in network expansion. Port Blair offers breathtaking natural beauty and is an attractive tourist destination with strong air travel demand,” Praveen Iyer, Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Akasa Air, said.
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Also, Akasa Air has received approval from the government to operate flights to Riyadh, Jeddah, Doha, and Kuwait, and expects to start international services “soon enough”, according to its chief Vinay Dube. Currently, the airline which completed its first year of operations in August, has a fleet of 20 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, and 2 more planes are expected to be inducted into its fleet by the end of this year.
Asserting that Akasa Air is in a “growth mode” with strong financials, Dube said the airline will announce a triple-digit aircraft order in 75 days or by the end of this year. “We have just been given traffic rights for Riyadh, Jeddah, Doha and Kuwait. The process will take time… We will let the process unfold.
“We continue to be in a very very exciting phase in our lives now. We are doing strong financially. We have a good cash position,” he told PTI in an interview.