'Our network will be 35% bigger by December-end'

OUR INVESTORS GAVE US CERTAIN MONEY TO SET UP THE AIRLINE, BUT WE HAVEN'T SPENT EVEN ONE RUPEE OF THAT

Even before Akasa Air could celebrate its first anniversary, it faced its toughest challenge which saw curtailed flights and reduced routes. Around 40 pilots, or 10% of the pool, quit without even serving the notice period. Not perturbed by these setbacks, Vinay Dube, co-founder and CEO of the low-cost airline tells Swaraj Baggonkar that Akasa Air will have a 35% bigger network by December-end. Excerpts: What has been the impact of the flight cancellations?

What's been the monetary loss?

While we don't put out these numbers, this is much more about the consumers who were impacted by our cancellations. That is why, we state the notice period is for the protection of the consumers. Akasa's financial position remains strong although we have had an impact. Our investors gave us certain money to set up the airline, but we haven't spent even one rupee of that because the airline has been cash-flow positive.

A The market views the 6month notice period for pilots as unreasonable. Your comments.

As in any company, we too have varying notice periods depending on the position of the employee in the company. So, the 6-month notice period is not general but a very specific clause for the pilots. Our view is that this is quite a reasonable thing to have. Some training takes 6 months, some may take 8 months or longer.

The 6-month is from a consumer perspective so that we can take a look at our network and capability 6 months in advance and the consumer does not suffer. The airline has to publish a schedule that is stable.

Is there a DGCA-defined notice period?