Low-cost carrier, Akasa Air, founded late billionaire Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Vinay Dube and Aditya Ghosh has announced expansion of its fleet after it placed order for another four Boeing 737 Max aircraft at the ongoing Paris Air Show. The airline which currently operates a fleet of 19 737 Max aircraft had placed order for 72 aircraft before it started operations in August last year.
The new order for additional aircraft is a follow up order which will take its fleet size to 76 aircraft over the next four years with inclusion of 53 high-capacity 737-8-200 aircraft apart from 23 737-8s.
The country’s newest low-cost carrier is also eyeing to commence international flight operations by end of 2023. Akasa said it is also on track to finalise another significant three-digit aircraft order and will be ready to announce it before the end of the calendar year.
Since it started operations, Akasa Air said it has carried over 3 million revenue passengers and crossed the milestone of operating over 900 weekly flights with a published network of 36 unique routes connecting 16 cities.
Elaborating on the order, Vinay Dube, Founder and CEO, Akasa Air said, “Akasa Air set a benchmark in the 120-year history of global aviation by becoming the first airline to reach a fleet size of 19 aircraft in less than a year of operations. While we are extremely happy with this achievement, we want to keep ourselves focused on our commitment to contribute to the air transportation ecosystem and support the nation’s economic growth engine. We are excited to add four more Boeing 737-8 to support our international expansion, taking our initial order of 72 aircraft to 76 to be delivered in the next four years. In addition to supporting our rapid domestic expansion, these airplanes allow us to take full advantage of the category leading 737-8 aircraft with its unparalleled range, as we prepare our foray into international routes”.
This 500 aircraft order is not only IndiGo’s largest order, but also the largest-ever single aircraft purchase by any airline with Airbus. Today IndiGo operates over 300 aircraft and has previous orders totaling 480 aircraft which are yet to be delivered between today and the end of this decade. With this additional firm order of 500 aircraft for 2030-2035, IndiGo’s order-book has almost 1,000 aircraft yet to be delivered well into the next decade.
