Akasa's supply chain woes

The new kid of the block, Akasa Air, has hit a roadblock with delayed deliveries from Boeing thanks to assembly line issues. The airline that has had a smooth start is already juggling with a fleet that is vastly non-uniform thanks to supply chain issues and Akasa's willingness to accept whitetails that were configured differently.

- AMEYA JOSHI

 

Akasa Air closed Q1 of 2023 with a market share of 3 per cent, with March seeing the airline record 3.3 per cent market share. At this share, it is currently half of SpiceJet. The airline, which intended to induct 18 aircraft by the end of March, now has 19 in its fleet. Even before the airline took to the skies, the airline was being compared with IndiGo, largely because of Aditya Ghosh- who was also part of the startup team at IndiGo. Aditya later took over as president and whole-time director at IndiGo, before leaving to pursue other opportunities.

There are some other similarities as well. Both airlines had their first flight in August IndiGo started operations on August 4, 2006, while Akasa Air started operations on August 7, 2022. The airline has 19 aircraft in its fleet as of now. In comparison, IndiGo ended its first financial year with 8 A320neo aircraft and a market share of 2.6 per cent. However, the market has changed by leaps and bounds. What needed eight planes to gain 2.6 per cent now needs 18. A market that had 305 commercial aircraft in March 2007 has a little over 700 right now.

The comparison from 2006-07 to this year also tells the story of IndiGo's resilient growth. Back then, the industry operated 1,153 domestic departures per day on average, a number that IndiGo alone surpasses daily today. The airline operates to over 76 domestic destinations and over 100 total destinations across the world.

Is the steam running out?