Akasa Air, the Indian affordable airline backed by capitalist Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, had placed an order for seventy two Boeing 737 MAX jets.
“Akasa Air’s order includes 2 variants from the 737 MAX family, together with the 737-8 and also the high-capacity 737-8-200,” the joint statement by Boeing and Akasa Air mentioned.
The move may facilitate the U.S. planemaker regain the lost ground in one of the world’s most promising markets.
Also Read: Rakesh Jhunjhunwala Launches Akasa Air, An Airline Focused On Affordable Fares
“We area extremely delighted to partner with Boeing for our 1st aircraft order and thank them for their trust and confidence in Akasa Air’s business set up and leadership team,” the airline’s CEO, Vinay Dube, said, per the statement.
“India is one in every of the fastest-growing aviation markets within the world with an incomparable potential. We have already witnessed a robust recovery in travel, and that we see decades of growth prior to us” Dube aforementioned.
Last month, SNV Aviation, that owns Akasa Air, aforementioned that it expected to begin flying next year once obtaining initial clearance from the civil aviation ministry to launch the country’s latest ultra-low-cost carrier.
Akasa Air plans to supply flights across India beginning in the summer of 2022 with an “endeavour to be the nation’s most reasonable, dependable and greenest airline”.
Jhunjhunwala, referred to as “India’s Warren Buffett”, has teamed up with former chief executives of IndiGo, the country’s biggest carrier, and Jet Airways to tap into demand for domestic travel, that is nearing pre-pandemic levels because the country recovers from a devastating outbreak earlier this year.
Also Read: Jhunjhunwala’s Akasa Air gets NOC, set to start operations by mid-2022
India’s air safety regulator in August had allowed the country’s airlines to fly the MAX jet to finish its nearly two-and-a-half-years of restrictive grounding.
The 737 MAX jet was grounded worldwide in March 2019 once 2 fatal crashes in 5 months killed 346 individuals, plunging Boeing into a money crisis, that has since been combined by the COVID-19 eruption.
Boeing dominates India’s widebody market of fifty one planes however fare wars and high prices have lead to casualties among full-service carriers, together with Kingfisher Airlines in 2012 and Jet Airways in 2019, creating low price carriers and airliner dominant.
Boeing’s share of India’s 570 narrowbody planes fell to 18% from 35% once Jet’s collapse in 2018, information from CAPA India consultancy shows. Currently, SpiceJet is Boeing’s biggest and solely client for the MAX planes within the country.
