Akasa Air Sees Light at End of Delivery Tunnel as Aircraft Flows Steady, Pilot Hiring Restarts
After nearly two years of delivery disruptions, Akasa Air is emerging from aircraft supply constraints, an inflection point that allows India's third-largest airline to restart pilot hiring, stick to its original growth plan, and avoid costly short-term fixes in a fiercely competitive aviation market.
Stabilizing Aircraft Deliveries Fuel Growth
Vinay Dube, the founder and chief executive officer of Akasa Air, stated in an interview that the earlier delays are now a thing of the past. "The deliveries are much more predictable, much more frequent," he emphasized. Aircraft deliveries determine pilot hiring, which in turn sets how much capacity an airline can deploy and how efficiently it can spread fixed costs—a chain Akasa says is now moving again.
Akasa, which operates an all-Boeing narrow-body fleet, had slowed fleet expansion and paused pilot hiring as aircraft supply tightened, even as demand rebounded across India's aviation sector. The improved delivery schedule now allows the airline to resume growth without resorting to wet-leasing aircraft or altering its single-type fleet strategy.
The airline inducted two aircraft in January and one in February. Two more are expected later this month, with another one to two due in March, according to Dube. Akasa currently operates 33 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, including three added so far in 2026. Launched in August 2022, Akasa is awaiting completion of its 226-aircraft order with Boeing, underpinning its long-term expansion plans.
Pilots Back on the Agenda
With aircraft inductions picking up, Akasa has restarted pilot hiring after an 18-month pause and is currently recruiting experienced first officers. Dube said the airline would soon widen hiring to include cadet partnerships and inexperienced pilots as deliveries accelerate.
"You know all of those two to two-and-a-half years ago, when we first spoke with Boeing and understood from them that our deliveries would not be at the pace that we had originally intended, there was a very conscious decision," Dube explained. "We may have extra pilots, but these pilots have committed to us when we were a young airline. We cannot either lay them off or furlough them."
Akasa currently employs 757 pilots. Dube stressed that the hiring push is unrelated to the new phase-II flight duty time limitation (FDTL) norms. "Nothing that I've described here is linked to the new FDTL norms. These are more linked to our aircraft delivery schedule," he clarified.
Discipline Over Opportunism in a Competitive Market
Despite heightened competition and aggressive capacity additions across India's aviation market, Akasa says it is not chasing market share or making mid-course strategic shifts. "Being opportunistic is not necessarily a good thing because it detracts from discipline," Dube asserted. "There's nothing Akasa has historically done that's been opportunistic."
Instead, the airline is focusing on operational discipline, cost control, and capital strength, areas where Dube believes airlines have historically faltered. "One of the big reasons airlines get into trouble is being under-capitalised," he noted. "We may make other mistakes, but these two—being under-capitalised and having an uncompetitive cost structure—we're not going to make."
That discipline is reflected in Akasa's operating choices. The airline is sticking to a single aircraft type, economy-only cabins, and a focus-city model rather than hub-and-spoke operations. It has no plans to introduce business-class seats or regional aircraft, and will instead deploy the 737 MAX to expand into tier-two and tier-three markets where demand supports narrow-body operations.
"Whenever you use words like opportunistic or sudden, you can expect a no from Akasa," Dube said. "We're not looking at regional aircraft and we're focused and happy with our single aircraft type."
Future Outlook and Financial Position
If deliveries remain on track, Akasa's fleet could grow to 45–50 aircraft over the next 12–18 months, improving fuel efficiency, lowering maintenance costs, and easing working capital pressures, according to Gagan Dixit, vice-president—oil & gas and aviation at Elara Capital. Profitability, however, is still likely 2–2.5 years away, he added.
Dube said the airline is also building its international network steadily and expects around 40% of its operations to be on global routes within the next three to four years. At present, Akasa operates international flights to five destinations.
Akasa ended FY25 with revenue of ₹4,582.72 crore and a loss of ₹1,983.4 crore. Backed by the late Rakesh Jhunjhunwala's family and fresh capital raised in August 2025, the airline holds about 5% of the domestic market. In October 2025, Akasa saw the exit of co-founder Neelu Khatri, who headed international operations. Khatri was not a board member and held less than 1% stake through SNV Aviation, the airline's holding company.
The exit followed Akasa's ₹1,200 crore fundraise in August 2025, led by Premji Invest and Claypond Capital, alongside 360 ONE Asset Management and additional commitments from the Jhunjhunwala family trusts. Dube said the airline plans to induct new investor representation on the board and has applied for security clearance for one such appointment.
