If Boeing deliveries were timely, more of our pilots would be flying, says Akasa Air CEO Vinay Dube

More pilots at Akasa Air would be flying today if Boeing’s aircraft delivery were timely, the airline’s founder and CEO Vinay Dube tells The Hindu.

“Is it a reality that we were supposed to get more aircraft, and therefore we should have seen a larger percentage of pilots clocking flying hours or in training? Yes, absolutely,” Mr. Dube told The Hindu in a telephonic conversation

Out of 775 pilots “hired for flying” at Akasa Air, 60% of them are able to log flying hours. Most of the remaining 300 pilots will also be able to fly by 2025-end. Pilots were hired with a 18-24 month timeline in mind before they start flying, keeping in mind the long training footprint for the final batch of 200-300 pilots that joined the airline without a prior Boeing 737 experience, as well as six-months of notice period to be served by new hires at their previous organisation, Mr. Dube said countering allegations from a set of pilots that it was hoarding pilots

The airline received three Boeing 737 MAX 8s in the calendar year 2024, after adding a plane per month since it launched operations in August 2022 because of delays in deliveries from Boeing because of heightened regulatory oversight for it following a mid-air blowout of a door-plug on Alaskan Air in January 2024. Later, a 55-day strike by machinists too brought production to a halt. It will add its 27th aircraft next week. If the airline had continued to grow its fleet at the rate it did in 2022 and 2023, it would be closing the financial year 2025 with nearly 42 aircraft in its fleet.

The top executive declined to provide the number of aircraft deliveries likely in calendar year 2025, but said that it was taking a conservative estimate of the deliveries originally planned for the year. Boeing has also conveyed to the airline that it will deliver some shortfalls from 2024 over the next 12 to 24 months, but Mr Dube said that they were not drawing their plans for the ongoing calendar year based on this promise.

The airline is also “100% current” on its pre-delivery payments to Boeing and won’t be leasing any planes.

In a bid to assuage employee concerns, Mr Dube said, “Akasa’s strength is its employee-centric approach. We have made a commitment to them and we will stick by that commitment. We are a well capitalised airline, we have a strong strategy and we are here for the long term.”

But he refused to confirm or deny media reports that the consortium of family offices of Azim Premji and Ranjan Pai were in talks for acquiring a minority stake in the airline for USD 100 million.

On the issue of rest and duty hours for pilots regarding which the DGCA held another meeting with airlines and pilot grouping last year ahead of Delhi High Court ultimatum for reaching a consensus, Mr Dube said “best practice solutions” for managing fatigue should be adopted.