India's Akasa Air refutes claims of "management churn"

Akasa Air (QP, Mumbai International) has hit back at media claims of ongoing "churn" in its senior leadership amid the airline's struggles to expand its fleet.

According to a report in the Business Standard newspaper, three senior executives have quit the carrier or are serving out their notice, namely its operations, strategy and planning chief, its aircraft acquisition and financing vice-president, and a senior catering manager.

While acknowledging the managers' departure, an Akasa Air spokesperson told ch-aviation that this is "typical in the dynamic aviation industry", adding that the vacant positions had been filled "without disruption" to operations.

The paper also claimed that ongoing supply chain issues at Boeing, which have seen aircraft deliveries slip, have, in turn, led to a shortage of qualified pilots at the airline.

ch-aviation data shows the airline is expecting to take delivery of 198 B737 MAX jets, namely ninety-nine B737-10s, and ninety-nine B737-8-200s.

The spokesperson said that the airline was gradually addressing the problem of idle pilots on its roster. "Despite the changes in the aircraft delivery schedules, more than 76% of our pilots have begun to accumulate flying hours, which is a significant increase from 60% in December 2024."

As ch-aviation previously reported, Akasa Air grounded some pilots in January 2025. At the time, it had recruited enough cockpit crew to operate 42 aircraft as of March 31, 2025, but closed the financial year with only 26 aircraft in its fleet.

Chief executive Vinay Dube reportedly told pilots during an internal meeting in March that the US manufacturer was "bloody retarding our speed". The airline subsequently said in April it was on track to increase its fleet to 30 aircraft, with its 28th MAX due to join the fleet later that month. It currently operates twenty-three B737-8s and five B737-8-200s.

Akasa Air commenced scheduled flight operations in August 2022 and now flies to 27 airports in five countries. In April, India's competition authority gave the green light for a consortium of investors to pump around USD125 million into the airline.