Akasa Air has announced that it will launch flights between Bengaluru and Chennai & between Chennai and Kochi.
Bengaluru-Chennai
Starting 10th September 2022, Akasa Air will operate twice-daily flights between Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport and Chennai International Airport.
The timings of the morning flights are:
- Bengaluru-Chennai
- Departure time: 08:30
- Arrival time: 09:35
- Flight time: 1 hour and 05 minutes
- Flight number: QP1319
- Frequency: Daily
- Chennai-Bengaluru
- Departure time: 10:15
- Arrival time: 11:20
- Flight time: 1 hour and 05 minutes
- Flight number: QP1320
- Frequency: Daily
The timings of the afternoon flights are:
- Bengaluru-Chennai
- Departure time: 12:00
- Arrival time: 13:05
- Flight time: 1 hour and 05 minutes
- Flight number: QP1313
- Frequency: Daily
- Chennai-Bengaluru
- Departure time: 13:40
- Arrival time: 14:35
- Flight time: 55 minutes
- Flight number: QP1316
- Frequency: Daily
Chennai is the fourth city we are connecting with Bengaluru, as we constantly augment this important sector. From September 10 we will offer double-daily flights in each direction on this new route.
said Praveen Iyer, Co-Founder, and Chief Commercial Officer, Akasa Air.
Chennai-Kochi
Starting 26th September 2022, the newest airline in India will operate a daily flight between Chennai International Airport and Kochi International Airport with the following schedule:
- Chennai-Kochi
- Departure time: 17:00
- Arrival time: 18:30
- Flight time: 1 hour and 30 minutes
- Flight number: QP1308
- Frequency: Daily
- Kochi-Chennai
- Departure time: 19:15
- Arrival time: 20:40
- Flight time: 1 hour and 25 minutes
- Flight number: QP1309
- Frequency: Daily
Both the new routes will be operated by B737MAX-8 aircraft featuring 189 standard Economy Class seats.
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Frequency increase on Mumbai-Ahmedabad route
On 3rd October 2022, Akasa will add a daily flight between Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport and Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport which will run with the following schedule:
- Mumbai-Ahmedabad
- Departure time: 06:05
- Arrival time: 07:25
- Flight time: 1 hour and 20 minutes
- Flight number: QP1113
- Frequency: Daily
- Ahmedabad-Mumbai
- Departure time: 08:15
- Arrival time: 09:30
- Flight time: 1 hour and 15 minutes
- Flight number: QP1114
- Frequency: Daily
These flights will also be operated by B737MAX-8 aircraft. Akasa already operates 13-weekly flights between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.
Augmenting its network
Akasa Air first launched flights on 7th August 2022 on Mumbai-Ahmedabad route. This was followed by the launch of Bengaluru-Kochi route on 13th August 2022. That was followed by the launch of Bengaluru-Mumbai route on 19th August 2022. Akasa yesterday (23rd August 2022) launched flights between Bengaluru and Ahmedabad. And the airline has already announced that it will launch flights on Mumbai-Chennai route on 15th September 2022.
This means that Akasa is operating or will operate flights on the following routes:
- Mumbai-Ahmedabad-Mumbai: presently 13-weekly service (increasing to 20-weekly from 3rd October 2022)
- Mumbai-Chennai-Mumbai: 7-weekly service from 15th September 2022
- Bengaluru-Mumbai-Bengaluru: presently 14-weekly service (increasing to 21-weekly from 30th August 2022)
- Bengaluru-Kochi-Bengaluru: presently 14-weekly service
- Bengaluru-Ahmedabad-Bengaluru: presently 7-weekly service
- Bengaluru-Chennai-Bengaluru: 14-weekly service from 10th September 2022
- Chennai-Kochi-Chennai: 14-weekly service from 26th September 2022
Akasa will now not have flights only on Mumbai-Kochi, Ahmedabad-Kochi and Ahmedabad-Chennai routes out of the 5 cities it serves (or will serve). It has flights on all the remaining city pairs.
Executives at Akasa Air have been saying from the start that the airline will focus on metro to tier-2 and tier-3 connectivity. This can be possible by having a significant presence in metro cities and it seems that the airline is doing just that. Once the airline builds up a significant presence at metros, it can then look to launch flights to tier-2 and tier-3 cities.
Featured image by Ishan Haria
What do you think of Akasa’s network strategy? Let me know in the comments section below.
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