Akasa Air makes the most of Go First's fall

In the early days of May and within days of the country recording its highest-ever single-day count of domestic passengers, Go First pulled a surprise. It suspended operations and stated that it is filing for voluntary bankruptcy. The announcement was unexpected and the situation continues to evolve.

Meanwhile, as Go First tries to defy history and make a comeback, there is little that has changed on the ground for aviation in India, thanks largely to the airline having less than 10 percent market share.

In April, Go First operated an average of 163 daily flights. A look at the overall numbers in May shows that the daily count of flights dropped by an average of 135 flights per day after Go First filed for bankruptcy, indicating that other airlines did increase flights to cater to the shortfall. Come June, airlines dropped some flights and the count was 160 a day lower than in April and 24 a day less than May.

Amidst the eternal stretch between gaining market share, keeping an eye on seasonality and the challenges around aircraft availability and crewing, who really made the most of the situation?

The immediate winner was Akasa Air, which increased its flights by 11.3% in May as compared to April. Interestingly, this was without a single new addition in its fleet in that month and entirely on the basis of increased utilisation of its existing fleet.

Akasa Air is also one of only two airlines that utilised all its allocated slots and ended up asking for more. In May, it operated an average of 863 weekly flights, which is 14.91% higher than the 751 weekly departures it had approval for at the beginning of the season. The only other airline to do so was IndiGo, which operated 11,506 weekly flights in May against an approved schedule of 11,465 flights at the beginning of the schedule.

Alliance Air, the only state-owned carrier in the country, came in second and deployed 5.8 percent more flights in May over April. Air India was next with an increase of 5.2 percent. Air India’s compliance stood at 90.86% in May, when it operated an average of 1,979 weekly flights as compared to its approved schedule of 2,178 weekly flights.

14/07/2023 Ameya Joshi/Moneycontrol

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Categories: Akasa Jul 2023, Go First Jul 2023