Goemkarponn desk
MOPA: Akasa Air, India’s youngest airline, is set to inaugurate its maiden flight from Goa, the 12th city on its network. After Mumbai and Pune, Goa is the third city in the western part of India to be added to the airline’s network. Akasa Air will be offering double daily flights from Goa to Mumbai and from Goa to Bengaluru from January 11, 2023. From February 01, 2023, the airline will increase its frequency from Goa to Bengaluru by adding an additional flight each day.
The first Akasa Air flight, QP1392 on the Bengaluru-Goa route, was scheduled to land at 1000 hrs IST at New Goa Manohar International Airport (Mopa) on Wednesday, January 11 2023.
Goa is one of India’s most popular tourist destinations and has recently also emerged as a manufacturing base for several leading companies. The launch of Goa as the latest destination on Akasa Air’s network, facilitating connectivity to Mumbai and Bengaluru, reiterates the airline’s commitment to strengthening important transportation links across the country. Akasa Air’s operations from Goa will cater to the travel demand, further optimizing economic growth by increasing the tourist footprint.
Commenting on the start of operations, Praveen Iyer, Co-Founder, and Chief Commercial Officer, of Akasa Air, said, “We are pleased to take off from our 12th destination within five months of our commercial launch. To strengthen our domestic connectivity, we are delighted to be able to connect the city of beaches with Mumbai and Bengaluru. We are constantly expanding our network with an aircraft arriving every 15 days to fulfil our goal of developing a strong pan-India presence”.
Belson Coutinho, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing & Experience Officer Akasa Air, said, “We are delighted to bring the Akasa experience to Goa, and Team Akasa is looking forward to delivering our promise of being a dependable airline focussed on delivering warm, efficient, and reliable service. As Akasa spreads its wings to Goa, we hope to create happy memories with our humane and inclusive travel experience.”
Akasa Air recently also announced Hyderabad as the 13th destination on its network, offering daily flights on the Hyderabad-Bengaluru and Hyderabad-Goa routes starting from January 25, 2023.
Since its launch in August this year, Akasa Air has been progressively scaling up its operations and, by January-end, expects to cross over 500 weekly flights on a total of 20 routes across 13 cities – Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Kochi, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Guwahati, Agartala, Pune, Visakhapatnam, Lucknow, Goa, and Hyderabad.
The airline will continue to grow its network to establish a strong pan-India presence focusing on the metro to tier 2 & 3 route connectivity, using a fleet expansion plan that adds one new aircraft every 15 days. Akasa Air’s fleet size will be 18 aircraft by the end of March 2023 and over the next four years, the airline will add 54 additional aircraft, taking its total fleet size to 72 aircraft.
