Akasa Air will suspend four daily Mumbai-Bengaluru flights from February 15 to March 30
Tuesday on 12 February, Akasa Air said that it would be discontinuing daily flights between the city and Bangalore in accordance with directives from the government to ease airport congestion in Mumbai. The Mumbai airport operator MIAL has been requested by the Airport Authority of India (AAI) to reduce the number of scheduled flights and limit the operation of private jets for extended hours.
A representative for Akasa Air said in a statement that the airline will be streamlining its network in relation to flights that are operated out of Mumbai. “Flight operations of airlines to/from Mumbai are expected to be impacted with guidelines being implemented to reduce runway congestion at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai. We have to rationalise our network resulting in cancellation of flights QP 1374 & QP 1367 (Mumbai to Bengaluru) and QP 1362 & QP 1366 (Bengaluru to Mumbai) between Feb. 15 to March 30,” the statement read.
The airline described the flight cancellations as a “aberration” on Monday. NDTV News reported that the airline was confronting a scarcity of trained pilots due to the non-availability of slots for simulator training. Despite having a fleet of Boeing aircraft, the carrier hired a significant number of Airbus pilots from Go First, a grounded carrier. A pilot has to complete conversion training prior in case of switching from one type of aircraft to another type.
Vinay Dube, CEO of Akasa Air, stated that there is no pilot shortage at the airline. “Akasa Air is sufficiently staffed with over 600 pilots, enough to operate more than double the size of our current fleet,” he said.
