
Akasa Air plans Southeast Asian expansion as Boeing problem eases
Akasa Air is gearing up for a major expansion this fiscal year, after a year of muted growth, buying planes and expanding flight operations to new regions. The low-cost carrier currently contributes 5% to India's domestic traffic.
The airline plans to launch international flights to one of the most sought-after regions for Indian travellers, southeast Asia.
However, having only Boeing planes in its fleet, the group has faced challenges to expand operations as the manufacturer has been going through a production slump.
Akasa chief commercial officer Praveen Iyer told ET, "The constraints seem to have been addressed to a large extent. Boeing had a peculiar issue and that's resolved, which is good news."
'The good news is the worst is behind the supply,' Iyer added.
He further added that they will be back on track for more deliveries this year, 'we are happy with how the deliveries are scheduled for the rest of the year.'
In the upcoming months, Akasa is aiming to increase its available seat kilometres, a key measure of airline capacity, by 30–40%.
The Boeing problem
Akasa had initially ordered 72 Boeing 737 Max aircraft in 2022 and later added four more to that order.
by Taboola
by Taboola
Sponsored Links
Sponsored Links
Promoted Links
Promoted Links
You May Like
Trending in in 2025: Local network access control [Click Here]
Esseps
Learn More
Undo
In January this year, it placed an additional order for 150 aircraft of the same type.
However, deliveries were delayed after Boeing faced intensified scrutiny from regulators and airlines following a mid-air incident in January involving a door plug detachment.
As the production issues are gradually resolving, Akasa now plans to ramp up its international presence.
'We have been consistently adding capacity on the international markets. Over the next several months you will see us making some announcements about addition of flights to Far East destinations,' Iyer said.
He also highlighted that the upcoming Noida and Navi Mumbai airports will be game-changers for international connectivity from India's busiest aviation hubs.
Stay informed with the latest
business
news, updates on
bank holidays
and
public holidays
.
AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Hindustan Times
11 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Delhi: NDMC nod for ₹135 crore projects to boost infra
The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) on Thursday approved projects worth over ₹135 crore for procurement of 120 Megawatts (MW) renewable energy, water metres, purchase of hydraulic high pressure jetting machine and for the promotion of art and culture in the NDMC area, among other projects, said officials. The decisions were taken in a meeting chaired by minister Parvesh Verma and attended by MP Bansuri Swaraj and other top NDMC functionaries, the council meeting took these decisions. A major welfare decision was taken regarding regularisation of Type-I and Type-II municipal quarters allotted in the name of the spouse or ward of former NDMC employees. These provisions apply to cases where the original allottee has retired or passed away, and the spouse or ward is a regular NDMC employee—even if the application was submitted after the permissible time period. The Council approved a one-time policy relaxation, including waiver of pending dues for such applicants. Chairman Parvesh Verma announced that penalties imposed on occupants residing for more than two years beyond permissible limits will also be waived. Citing one case where a family had a penalty of ₹24 lakh, he confirmed that the full amount has been waived off. 'This is not just about housing regularisation, it is about honouring families who served NDMC for years. It is our responsibility to stand by them,' said Verma. He further informed that in cases where judicial proceedings are pending in courts, NDMC will move towards withdrawal of those cases. The council approved procurement of 120 MW of firm, dispatchable renewable energy from NHPC Ltd. at ₹4.62/kWh to address the shortfall in power demand and meet renewable power obligations. It also sanctioned ₹4.56 crore for replacing outdated electronic energy metres with smart metres and ₹30.84 crore for swapping over 15,000 old water metres with AI-enabled smart water metres, marking a full transition to digital utility monitoring in the NDMC zone, said officials aware of the matter. 'This council is committed to transforming New Delhi into a model of responsive governance and sustainable urban development. All our decisions are aligned with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of a modern, inclusive and efficient capital — every initiative approved today is a step towards delivering citizen-first governance,' said NDMC vice chairman Kuldeep Singh Chahal. Acknowledging aging infrastructure, NDMC cleared ₹6.75 crore for replacement of life-served 33kV power cables, and ₹5.20 crore for a hydraulic high-pressure jetting machine to manage drainage before the monsoon. In another major move, ₹70.44 crore was allocated for the desilting of the Sunehri drain near Lodhi Road, a joint project with the DMRC flagged as a top priority by the Lieutenant Governor, according to officials. To bolster the cultural identity of the capital's core, NDMC approved 1% of its annual budget for the promotion of art and culture, including music and heritage festivals. The Council also approved ₹4.18 crore for hiring temporary urinals and comfort stations for national events, and ₹6.64 crore for shifting water lines in Sarojini Nagar in coordination with NBCC's redevelopment project. Small amounts have been allocated for other civic projects as well, officials said. For the welfare of employees, a one-time policy relaxation was approved to regularize quarters for families of deceased or retired staff. Hospital Patient Care Allowances and Conveyance Allowances were approved for doctors and medical staff. The Council also passed amendments and framed Recruitment Rules (RRs) for over 1,000 posts across categories including stenographers, assistants, carpenters, metre inspectors and medical staff. Notably, 17 posts of deputy directors will now be merged with four joint director roles, expanding top-level administrative strength to 21.


Time of India
20 minutes ago
- Time of India
Air India plane crash: Boeing CEO cancels trip to Paris Airshow, GE postpones investor day after fatal crash
Boeing and GE Aerospace are scaling back their public activities following the fatal crash of an Air India jetliner, with the planemaker's CEO canceling his trip to the Paris Airshow next week and GE postponing an investor day. More than 240 people were killed when an Air India Boeing 787 jet bound for London crashed moments after taking off from the city of Ahmedabad on Thursday, authorities said, in the world's worst aviation disaster in a decade. Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said in a message to staff on Thursday evening that he and Boeing Commercial Airplanes boss Stephanie Pope had canceled plans to attend the Paris Airshow "so we can be with our team and focus on our customer and the investigation." Play Video Pause Skip Backward Skip Forward Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration 0:00 Loaded : 0% 0:00 Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 1x Playback Rate Chapters Chapters Descriptions descriptions off , selected Captions captions settings , opens captions settings dialog captions off , selected Audio Track default , selected Picture-in-Picture Fullscreen This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Opaque Semi-Transparent Text Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Caption Area Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Drop shadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Top 5 Dividend Stocks for May 2025 Seeking Alpha Read Now Undo The air show, which runs from June 16 to June 20 at Le Bourget, is the global aviation industry's largest trade show, where many aircraft orders are typically placed by airlines. Aircraft engine-maker GE Aerospace, whose engines were in the Boeing 787 plane, had planned an investor day on June 17 coinciding with the show. Live Events The company said on Thursday the briefing had been canceled and it would put a team together to go to India and analyze data from the crashed airplane. "GE Aerospace's senior leadership is focused on supporting our customers and the investigation," the company said in a statement. GE said it planned to give a financial update later this month. The decisions by Boeing and GE come as delegates said the crash is casting a somber mood over the Paris Airshow. One delegate said the show would go on and business would continue but with fewer of the high-profile press conferences and in-person announcements associated with the industry's biggest commercial showcase. Another said some order announcements could be delayed until later in the year as a mark of respect for victims of the accident.


Time of India
22 minutes ago
- Time of India
India needs more infra to train larger AI models, says Krutrim's top executive
Ola's artificial intelligence arm Krutrim is looking to get its base infrastructure, from semiconductors to hardware, fast and cost-effective as the company scales up its AI services, senior vice-president and head of business A Navendu said. Krutrim, which raised $50 million in 2024, has seen few takers for its AI products due to poor documentation and lack of adequate technical maturity, ET reported earlier this month, citing several developers and startup founders. Navendu, who was previously chief information officer at Ola Electric , told ET that one of the biggest challenges in the country is the lack of infrastructure for training large models, as only 10,000 GPUs are currently available, and the rest of the GPUs under the IndiaAI Mission are still to be delivered. 'If you look at (US AI startup) Grok, it is trained on 100,000 GPUs and (ChatGPT developer) OpenAI, 200,000 every quarter. You have to cut some slack for Indian companies,' he said. Early this year, Krutrim announced that it would invest Rs 2,000 crore in Krutrim AI labs as part of a total investment of Rs 10,000 crore by next year. The second biggest challenge is data. Discover the stories of your interest Blockchain 5 Stories Cyber-safety 7 Stories Fintech 9 Stories E-comm 9 Stories ML 8 Stories Edtech 6 Stories There is a dearth of Indic language data, said Chandra Khatri, who heads AI at Krutrim. 'If you look at data on the web, only 1% of it is Indian languages whereas the Indian population is 20% of the group. If you want to build for India, you need to scrape, digitise, scam and collect data. This is a challenge.' The company is working on a multibillion parameter model. To address the compute needs, it will use a mixture of its own and IndiaAI GPUs and will also explore building its own data centres, Navendu told ET. He did not disclose the details. Navendu spoke to ET on the sidelines of the launch of the company's agentic AI assistant Kruti, a consumer application that is autonomous and can take action on behalf of the user. It is currently integrated with Ola's ecosystem offering four services, including cab booking, food delivery, bill payment and image generation, with plans to expand further. The company is also in talks with multiple services across healthcare and shopping use cases. Sunit S, head of product design, said it will also pursue partnerships with ONDC, which offers services such as metro tickets and recharge.