Today marks the last weekend of 2023. This means that Akasa Air’s “triple digit” order has not happened this year. This adds to the series of “goof ups” that have happened with the airline in the last one year or so. Akasa Air’s triple digit order and IndiGo’s widebody were the most talked about orders before the Dubai air show. The difference between the two? Akasa Air’s CEO had publicly spoken about the “triple digit” order before year end (calendar year) while IndiGo has never spoken anything about its widebody order.
Ordering aircraft is not an easy thing, it requires hours and hours of negotiations, agreements before concluding and keeping it ready for an MoU and subsequent signing subject to conditions from the MoU being met. The “triple digit” order statements were rather a cover up of an earlier mess up where the lawyers of the company told the court that the airline “could shut down” if pilots keep leaving. The high profile case has also made a quiet exit from the media.
Public commitment is the problem and lack of adhering to it leads to a trust deficit. Early this year, VInay Dube – the CEO of Akasa Air said that it would be the second largest carrier at Bengaluru within three months. Interestingly, the gap between the second carrier (AirAsia India) and Akasa Air started widening since these comments were made. At the end of November, Vistara is pushing Akasa Air for the number three spot instead of Akasa Air taking the number two spot.
Will 2024 be different? Aditya Ghosh – one of the co-founders of Akasa Air had famously said that IndiGo is boringly consistent like Roger Federer. This was when he headed IndiGo. It is time for Akasa Air to embrace this, talk little and perform more unless it believes in any news being good news and controversy fuels its sales.
Back to the order? Will it be announced at Wings India in a few weeks from now? While Wings India has grown, there has been little business that has generated here in terms of aircraft sales. Will Akasa Air cover up all its earlier miscommunications with a huge statement at Wings India? Over to Hyderabad starting Jan 18, 2024.
You can now order Network Thoughts baggage tags and/or book marks!
Follow NetworkThoughts on Twitter, Facebook, Telegram and YouTube.
punny