India's new airline Akasa Air on Saturday, September 10, inaugurated its first flight from Chennai, the fifth city in its network, enabling the airline to offer twice-daily flights in each direction on the Chennai-Bengaluru route. Further expanding its operations from Chennai, the airline will start one additional daily flight from September 15 on the Chennai-Mumbai route and will add another daily flight on the Chennai-Bengaluru route from September 26. The airline has also added a new route between Chennai and Kochi, which will commence from September 26.

The airline started its commercial operations with two aircraft and has subsequently received four aircraft till now. It will continue to grow its fleet with a focus on key cities and metro to tier-2 and 3 route connectivity. Akasa Air's fleet size will reportedly 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. Akasa Air, which was backed by stock market investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala who passed away on August 14, launched commercial operations in August with two Boeing 737 Max aircrafts, operating flights between Mumbai and Ahmedabad. Jhunjhunwala had teamed up with ex-Jet Airways CEO Vinay Dube and former IndiGo head Aditya Ghosh to launch Akasa Air. 

Commenting on the first flight and the new route, Praveen Iyer, Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer, Akasa Air, said, “We have achieved yet another milestone today with the launch of commercial flights from Chennai, which is the fifth city in our network. From today, we will offer double-daily flights in each direction on this new route. Praveen also added, “The increased capacities across these key focus cities backed by affordable fares will provide our customers many options to choose from while planning their travel. We are delighted to augment our network to meet our commitment of progressively adding more cities along new sectors.”