Market big enough for more players; don’t see intense competition among airlines, says Akasa Air co-founder

In the period before the Pre-Covid wave, the industry had close to 3,100 domestic flights a day. Currently it is 2,700, 15% below where it was, says Praveen Iyer, Co-Founder, Akasa Air

Akasa Air was launched with 5 destinations. When are you expanding to other cities?
We have recently added Delhi as our sixth destination. We already fly to Bombay, Ahmadabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Cochin and now Delhi. We will announce our next set of routes that should be announced in a couple of days but with an aircraft coming every 15 days you will see us expand and announce more and more routes.

The whole aviation sector is heating up with the latest entrant Akasa Air and the revival of Jet Airways. What is your overall assessment of the intense competition that is emerging in the Indian skies?
The market is big enough for more players. Pre-Covid wave, the industry had close to 3,100 domestic flights a day. Currently it is 2,700, 15% below where it was. The August numbers are there to be seen for everybody. We had close to a crore passengers, which was close to 11.7 million way back in August of 2019. I would say there is enough playground available. I do not see intense competition frankly.