Akasa Air eyes flights to Asia’s tourist hotspots, says CCO

Praveen Iyer, the chief commercial officer (CCO) of Akasa Air's parent SNV Aviation Pvt Ltd, said in an interview that the Mumbai-headquartered budget carrier is gearing up to start flights to Nepal's capital Kathmandu and Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka, while other travel hotspots such as Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia are also on the airline’s radar.

“Indians in general love traveling. That prompts us to look at the next set of expansion,” Iyer said, adding that outbound traffic from India starting October is “very strong” with Southeast Asian destinations emerging as big contributors.

The rapid ramp up by the fledgling airline — which started operations two years ago and has added five overseas routes this year — underscores the demand for air travel, as Indians get wealthier and countries ease visa restrictions for its citizens, according to Bloomberg.

Akasa Air is also preparing for intensifying competition as its local rivals bulk up.

Tata Group owned Air India and Vistara are merging while India's largest airline by passengers carried and fleet size, IndiGo, plans to fly long-haul international routes.

Meanwhile, at least a half-dozen overseas carriers, including Etihad Airways and Malaysia Airlines, have added or introduced flights to several Indian cities.

In January, Akasa Air, which has a fleet of 24 jets flying 49 routes, ordered 150 Boeing 737 Max jets, pushing its total order book to 226 jets, due to be delivered over the next eight years.

The airline aims to expand its short-haul international network using its narrowbody fleet that is capable of flying routes of up to six hours, and it began overseas operations in March with services to Doha from Mumbai and has added more Gulf destinations including Abu Dhabi and Jeddah, as reported by Bloomberg.