The CEO of Akasa Air (QP, Mumbai International) says that ten show-cause notices issued by India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) are opportunities to learn and improve. Vinay Dube told CNBC-TV18 that issues raised by the safety regulator are addressed swiftly and do not reflect the carrier’s commitment to safety, which he says is rock solid.
“We have a highly professional regulator, and other airlines get notices but they’re less talked about,” he said. “Are we two weeks late in providing a manual to authorities? Yes, we are. Were there any mitigating circumstances? Yes, there were. We get notices for such issues. We put correction plans in place and move on. We’re fully focused on making the right systematic corrections where we need them.”
“When you look at the quality of our manuals, when you look at the way we handle fatigue, when you look at our training and operating procedures and the amount of training we provide, we are close to being world-class,” he added. “There’s nothing that we’re doing that is skimping on safety.”
ch-aviation has reported on Akasa’s many show-cause notices, one of which culminated in the suspensions of its director of operations and director of training for six months. More recently, the low-cost carrier received a warning from the DGCA about lithium battery violations.
Dube also responded to pilot complaints about not getting enough training or flying hours. Akasa has grounded around 40% of its 775 pilots because of aircraft delivery delays. The airline is operating 26 aircraft, including twenty B737-8s and three B737-8-200s and is still awaiting another forty-six B737-8s from its first order of 72 aircraft.
“I would first challenge the presence of large-scale discontent,” he said. “We already have over 60% of our pilots getting flying hours, but we would want more pilots in our operations. However, we have had constraints in delivery of aircraft, which is out of our control, but I would question the premise of that there is no large-scale discontent, because that’s not the data that we see.”
Akasa Airlines commenced scheduled flight operations in August 2022. It now flies to 30 airports across five countries. Vinay says he is laying the groundwork for long-term growth. He forecasts a compound annual growth rate of 12-16% over the next decade.
“Our focus is growth and profitability and as you know we are not profitable today but we are ahead of our financial plan and so profitability will come,” he said. “We are focused on really building an airline our grandchildren will fly on, nothing short-term in nature.”