By Shivansh Tiwary
NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Indian carrier Akasa Air expects deliveries of Boeing’s 737 MAX 10 planes by the summer of 2027 and also expects the aircraft to be certified by then, Akasa’s chief executive officer Vinay Dube told Reuters on Wednesday.
Akasa Air, the newest entrant to the Indian aviation industry, began flying internationally in March, with the Boeing orders boosting its global flight plans.
The carrier had ordered 150 737 MAX narrow body planes in January, including the MAX 10 and MAX 8-200 versions. It had not specified how many of each type were ordered.
Akasa Air had a market share of 4.5% in the March-quarter, smaller than rivals IndiGo, SpiceJet, Vistara and Air India, but higher from 3% a year earlier, per the Indian aviation regulator’s website.
The carrier currently operates a fleet of 24 aircraft, all of which are 737 MAX planes.
The U.S. civil aviation regulator had raised concerns regarding the certification of the MAX 10 model following an incident in January in which a door plug blew off a 737 MAX 9 plane mid-flight.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration had adopted a new aircraft certification policy in November last year.
Delta Air has said it does not expect MAX 10 deliveries for “quite some time” without specifying a timeline, while United Airlines has converted a portion of its MAX 10 orders to MAX 9.
Akasa had in January expressed confidence in its choice of aircraft.
(Reporting by Shivansh Tiwary in New Delhi, writing by Varun Hebbalalu in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Mrigank Dhaniwala)
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