The entry of Akasa Air comes as a respite for passengers as the airfares have already seen a decline on the routes the new airline will be flying starting next month. While tariffs on Mumbai-Ahmedabad route have dipped by 33 per cent, the airfare on Kochi-Bangalore route has also seen some dip. This comes at a time when the aviation sector has been generally increasing airfares to recover rising fuel costs.
With the rise in fuel prices, domestic and international airfares have witnessed a surge by up to 50 per cent in the past few months, according to data from online portals.
Phased approach
Akasa will adopt a phased approach to connecting more cities as it adds two Boeing 737 Max aircraft each month.
In the inaugural phase of its network development, Akasa Air will launch its operations by offering 28 weekly flights between Mumbai and Ahmedabad starting August 7. Following this, beginning August 13, the airline will start operating an additional 28 weekly flights between Bengaluru and Kochi, Akasa said on Friday.
According to Akasa, its first aircraft will operate two roundtrips between Mumbai to Ahmedabad starting between 10:05 am and 5:15 pm. The other aircraft will also do two roundtrips and operate between Bangalore and Kochi starting at 7:05 am and 2:15 pm.
Nripendra Singh, Global Director - Frost & Sullivan, said, “In my view, on Akasa’s routes and slots are both short-haul routes with high frequency available. It would be a bit challenging but the slots that Akasa has got have decent timings. BOM-AMD is already congested, so not very lucrative to start with. However Bangalore-Kochi is a safer bet.”
However, Jagannarayan Padmanabhan, Director and Practice Leader, Transport & Logistics, CRISIL Infrastructure Advisory believes that it is a safer bet for Akasa to start small and expand. “It’s a soft launch. It helps them to stabilise their operations and will help them ramp up based on the learnings that they get in these sectors,” said Padmanabhan.