This is an audio transcript of The Morning Brief podcast episode: On Air with the Akasa Boys

BG Sound  

So, this is the morning brief from the economic times

Aditya Ghosh  

I keep saying you know Vinay and I are okay, so I will be distracted with five other things Vinay was like laser focused one thing and in all of that he's RJ will suddenly say, Hey, you guys want to have mangoes?

Vinay Dube  

I have put on thanks to Aditya at least five kilos. You should never travel with an Aditya if you know if you're not willing to eat from morning to evening

Aditya Ghosh  

with Vinay if you ask him why does he like this cup of tea? Be prepared for a very logical well founded answer

Vinay Dube  

Anirban just don't ask why and how do I like chocolate?

Aditya Ghosh  

Exactly We have to go to the Chocolate story at some point of time

Vinay Dube  

I compared his smile to Britney Spears once. 

Aditya Ghosh  

Yeah, that is that is another weird story.

Anirban Chowdhury  

This was a conversation between Vinay Dube and Aditya Ghosh, the founder and the co founder of a much talked about startup that soon to begin operations. They sounded pretty chill, right? Like from their conversation? Would you really think that these two gentlemen have a really, really difficult job ahead of them?

You should.

Because the startup you're talking about is Akasa. An airline owned by ACE investor, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, which is just about to enter the big, bad bleeding world of Indian Airlines. A dog eat dog universe of cutthroat competition and costs where billionaires pour their money and become millionaires. But these are no deterrence to the boys at Akasa, which got its flying permit from the government last week. The airline plans to start flights from the end of this month has an order for 72 Boeing planes and what seems like a crack team running it. piloting the project is Vinay co founder and CEO of the airline. Akasa is actually his brainchild, founded with his colleagues, Praveen Iyer who's the airline's Chief Commercial Officer, and Anand Srinivasan its digital head. Vinay is an airline veteran. He has charted a two decade long course in the skies, spanning American Airlines and Delta Airlines in the US and Jet Airways and go air in India as their CEO Vinay covered it all before deciding to fly solo fly solo big idea, needing big bucks and big backing. That came from none other than the big bull Jhunjhunwala who has in the past invested in aviation businesses SpiceJet Indigo and jet in its original avatar. And then Aditya came on board as a co founder. Aditya was president of indigo for 10 years from its own startup days to when it became India's biggest airline by market share. He is headed Hotel aggregator oyo been associated with Tata trusts and is also a restaurateur, a fitness freak and a travel enthusiast. When Aditya joined akasa as co founder, they were fears of clashes between the two airline veterans with distinctive personalities and working styles. Vinay understated and stayed Aditya famous, adventurous, outgoing and very, very visible. In this episode, they put all those fears to rest by displaying what can only be described by the word, romance. They also talk about the Akasa story, their stories with akasa and how they plan to make it fly. It's Thursday, the 14th of July from the economic times. I'm Anirban Chowdhury and you're listening to On Air with the Akasa boys on the morning brief. Vinay I wanted to understand what would you call the starting point of Akasa? You know, how and when did the idea take seed in your mind? In fact, you know, the first thing that I heard you did was that you created a folder on your laptop with the name new airline or Akasa Why don't you tell us how that happened?

Vinay Dube  

Yeah, sadly, I will tell you it was the second thing I did and the name was even stranger than new airline and there's a there's a background to it. So the first thing I did in this I remember this day distinctly, it was the 15th of August, I slept all day on the 14th of August, I arrived at the idea early morning, 15th of August that this was something that I just had to do, I had no other choice. And the first thing I did was asked my family, okay, because as you know, starting an airline is quite a project. And it's very time consuming. So the first thing I did was ask my family for permission, and they were all they were all quite, you know, gung ho about it. And part of the reason they were gung ho about this was because they were in, you know, total disbelief like this guy will come to his senses pretty soon, then, you know, I asked my brothers, whether they wanted to join me on my harebrained idea, and of course, they said, Yes. And then I pulled out my laptop. And the name of the of the airline first for me was called equal air, it was, you know, you can guess I have a master's degree in applied math. And that's where my nonsensical name came from, of course, my family, you know, immediately told me how stupid it was. But that was, that was the sequence Anirban on the 15th of August was the was the right, 

Anirban Chowdhury  

which year was this? 

Vinay Dube  

This was in 2020. I'm sorry, it's been about two years old. 

Anirban Chowdhury  

right, and why equal air What was for the uninitiated? 

Vinay Dube  

You know, absolutely no reason if there was some reason. And by the way, this is all post fact I'm making this all up who knows whether that was the reason or not my, you know, I have a hard time remembering what I did day before yesterday, let alone two years ago. But, you know, there was this thought from day one, that, you know, that I wanted to continue down the journey of democratizing air travel. And equal air for me, with my silly mathematical brain had this notion that, you know, this would be an airline where everyone would be treated equally, we'd welcome the frequent flyer, we'd welcome you know, the person that has never flown before, I had my driver in mind, you know, I had, you know, sort of executive of the largest Indian, you know, company in mind had everyone in mind, and equal just seemed like, like the right name. But, you know, thankfully, we hired smarter people along the way and changed the name.

Anirban Chowdhury  

Right. So why don't you tell me how the actual name came into being? There's a very interesting story there too, right?

Vinay Dube  

Well, ya, the the actual name, you know, as you can imagine, you know, people don't like thinking of an airline without a name. And so the minute I told people, everyone, of course, had their had their name suggestions. Akasa was first suggested by my brother in law. And this was also in in late 2020. And of course, I thought it was the most ridiculous name who names an airline Akasa I'd never heard of that. And he proceeded to tell me what it meant in Sanskrit. And again, you know, it was one of those things I discarded until we you know, almost had to have a name. And then Bhavin Joshi said, suggested akasa again, and this time, it was, you know, with Belson around with, you know, Praveen Anand you know, we had a good group of people, and all of them seem to like it. And I was like, wait a minute, everybody likes it. Am I the only one and you know, then I said it 30 times, or 100 times over 20 days, and I began to like it as well. So you got to credit, my brother in law Shreyash Barve and Bhavin Joshi with, with coming up with names and, and you have to credit Belson for really making that final decision on the name.

Anirban Chowdhury  

Right. Aditya, I'd like to bring you in here. I mean, how did you sort of enter this story? What we hear and what you've always known is that Mr. Rakesh Jhunjhunwala approached you know, with the proposal of being his nominee at Akasa. Is that how it went? First of all,

Vinay Dube  

if you don't mind Anirban and and Aditya let me let me take that.

Aditya Ghosh  

Absolutely.

Anirban Chowdhury  

 Please, please. 

Aditya Ghosh  

The story is a little different. 

Vinay Dube  

Yeah, it's not quite that Anirban but when I pulled out my my laptop on the 15th of August, I didn't write down any formula I didn't write down any The first thing I wrote down for me on my laptop was Who would I like to have with me on this journey? Right? This is this is something that one does not do alone. It's impossible, completely. And the first thing is, who would I like to have fun with but who would I also like to be supported by because like I said, You can't do this alone. And Aditya was along with Praveen along with Anand and along with Neelu Belson, you know, Aditya's name was written. And so Aditya got a call from me in August as well, by the way, well before sort of the June timeframe 2020

Anirban Chowdhury  

Oh I had no clue

Aditya Ghosh  

And I remember exactly I was at home and it was the afternoon and Vinay call me and it says that, you know, look, I'm looking at starting an airline and the first thing I said, Wow, that's just a great idea. You know, and and I think only Vinay and I would be like, you know, we would be few people who were in the middle of a lock down in the middle of a pandemic would have instantly thought, What a great idea because we're just such great believers in the opportunity. And this is in the middle of lockdown. Like, we are not moving out of our apartment. And we're thinking, here's someone who calls me and says that, you know, we should start an airline. And the first thing I said is, wow, I think it's just a fantastic idea. And then we had a couple of conversations. And unfortunately, what happened was that just around that time, and just soon after that, my father fell very ill. And unfortunately, we lost him a few weeks later. And I as when I said, and very kindly like, I was just not in a space to sort of be able to focus on on this massive project, even though I really felt Oh, man, this is such a great opportunity. And and then like, we just did not speak about it. And what actually happened was that Rakesh's office Mr. Jhunjhunwala's office was in Ushma or Ushma, I reached out and said, Look, can we talk to you about a project? I've known them for a long period of time from 2015 onwards. And then they said, Look, there's this airline project that somebody is looking at. And I said, you know, are you talking about Vinay's idea. And then suddenly, I hear Rakesh's voice on the call, which I didn't know that Rakesh is on the call. And when Rakesh like this cuts through as he normally does, and he's just like, No, look, are you going to come in this thing, you know, be a part of it. So I said, Look, I'll be super excited, just as I was a few months back, but it's only fair that you please check with Vinay because he's a friend of mine. And we've spoken about the he's like, don't worry about it. We will, of course, ask him and you know, without his consent, nothing says it. Sure. And like we decided, we call ended on a positive note. And they said, Okay, we'll call you back in a few days. And I think my phone rang, maybe, I don't know, 15 minutes later, or 10 minutes later, or 20 minutes later. And they're like, look, we spoke with a he is just thrilled. And he's on the moon. So it

Vinay Dubey  

jumping with joy. 

Aditya Ghosh  

So yeah, so that's, that's how then we came together. And now like, you know, it's just been such a beautiful, literally, it's such a beautiful journey. And it's amazing that we're talking just literally, I don't know, 72 hours after or less than 72 hours after we finally got our IOC, 

Anirban Chowdhury  

Right So Vinay and Aditya, I'd like to ask you, you know, both of you bring such a wealth of experience and industry goodwil and wisdom to the table, right. I mean, for Aditya, it would be Indigo, of course, largely, and also your stints with in the hospitality sector. So first of all aditya for example, if I can call Mr. Rakesh Gangwal. And Mr. Rahul Bhatia, who are the founders of indigo, if I can call them your mentors? What lessons from them and from your whole experience in Indigo have remained with you that you would you know like to bring in to Akasa?

Aditya Ghosh  

 I've just learned so much from not only Rakesh and Rahul, of course, but actually let me step back, you know, I never went to business school or I never started my career in the airline business. So whatever I have learned, I have actually learned on the job from colleagues and peers and seniors, from whom I would love to and I've said this many times that if delegation is an art form than Rahul Bhatia is the Michael angelo of it, you know, the way he is, he was able to give me confidence, empower me, let me do my thing, and then also be available for me to have a conversation or an ice cream or for a walk and talk about things was amazing. With Rakesh, again, out of the many, many things, the ability to focus on, what is the objective? Like, what is the goal? And are you are you laser sharp, focused on what is the objective and is everything that you're doing, you know, focused around that the ability to go into granular detail, as well as and then to suddenly step back and look at large strategic sort of views. And I think over the years that has served me very well.

Anirban Chowdhury  

Great, yeah, absolutely. Vinay, you know, you too, I mean, coming from Delta, leading jet at two of its most turbulent years, then go air, you know, what are your lessons, also mistakes that you probably made that you wouldn't want to, you know, repeat in Akasa would love to hear that from you.

Vinay Dube  

So, for me, one of the first things that I learned when I came to India and 2017 to jet was the fact that I kept hearing about how India is different and you know, I will tell you, you don't get jalebis in the US like you get in allahabad prayagraj Sorry, you don't get the same Puri and Bhel puri anywhere in the world like you get in, in Mumbai. And I'm sorry, all my analogies are food related. So India has many, many unique food items. India has a lot of great culture and history. But the way aviation has unfolded the way aviation is going to unfold. And the economic and other laws related to aviation are the same in India as they are in other parts of the world with very, very minor differences. And that's something that I learned very early on in my stint of jet. I mean, literally within 20 - 30 days, as I looked at the difficulties and issues we were facing, as I compared them, to the difficulties and issues that were faced by the legacy carriers. So who was thriving and who wasn't thriving it was it was as though Indian aviation history was just a repeat and rewind of US aviation history, European aviation history, anyone who was one to five years ahead of Indian you know deregulation, in aviation, so that was one of the first things I learnt, in general though, I would say aviation is actually quite simple. You have to have dependable and warm customer service, you have to be well capitalized, you have to have a highly competitive cost structure, you must have an employee centric, corporate culture. And then most of all, to execute, you have to have a world class management team. It's about as simple as that. If you get these things, right, you will do well, if you don't, you won't do well. And hopefully at akasa with Aditya's help, we are hopefully addressing each one of these issues.

Anirban Chowdhury  

Right. I mean, you spoke about the fact that a lot of things in the Indian industry in the Indian aviation industry are similar to what you've seen overseas. But then there are unique problems too, right? I mean, the fact that our fuel, which is the biggest cost component is taxed heavier in India than then the rest of the world. I don't know if the pricing indiscipline in India is similar to the markets that you mentioned, these are some of the things that Akasa will have to grapple with. Right. 

Vinay Dube  

They will Anirban. But just to tell you, when I was in the US, one of the great CEOs or two of the great CEOs, Richard Anderson and Ed Bastian that I had the pleasure of dealing with, then say that aviation in the US is taxed more than than all of the quote unquote syntaxes, which is you know, Tobacco, Firearms and alcohol. So every country you go to has its thing of, you know, we're taxed too heavily. I mean, you just have to, you just have to deal with it. And, you know, people talk about, well, Indian travelers are price sensitive, you know, everybody around the world wants a good deal on an airline ticket. So we can try and say we're different in this and that the other and look, there will be some nuances. I'm not, I'm not saying that there aren't sort of nuanced differences. But at the end of the day, it's aviation and the way you apply your team and the way you apply your strategies, and your execution has to be, you know, largely the same.

Anirban Chowdhury  

Aditya it's, it's a tough time for incumbent airlines across the world, right? I mean, first, there was COVID. And now the bounce back is so rapid that many airlines are finding themselves too shrunken to handle this huge demand. In this respect. Do you think it's a good time to be a startup airline like Akasas, like to start with a clean slate and have very few of the legacy issues that the incumbent airlines across the world and in India would face?

Aditya Ghosh  

That in? Great question. So, you know, when you're building an airline, and you're building business like this, you're building it for many years, decades together, if someone looks at coming into the airline business with a very short term or a sort of an immediate outlook of life and horizon, then I think they will be in trouble in a country like India, with such a large population, which will probably be the most populous country sometime in the next 500 days. Right? Having 500 odd commercial airplanes in the country is a pittance. And not all 500 commercial airplanes are flying domestic either. What has definitely happened and it just plays to our strength is that as the world comes out of the pandemic, especially countries like India come out of the pandemic and it is now behind us. The Affordable segment of the market, sees the maximum opportunity sees the maximum growth and sees the most you know, rebound which is obvious because people still want to travel, but they want to travel at a more affordable price because they want to conserve cash. So yes, while in some ways, it looks like a very challenging time, and definitely unprecedented. It also is a time, which has the maximum opportunity for a new guy to start.

Anirban Chowdhury  

Do you think the government is doing enough? With my limited knowledge and understanding? I think it isn't. There's the high taxes on fuel that I just mentioned, then, of course, the government has imposed these higher and lower caps on airfares that airlines think are unfair. And I do too. Also, the government keeps saying that it has opened up new airports, but to how many of these have flights started and our operations really sustainable to these airports?

Vinay Dubey  

Let's take a moment to appreciate what they have done. And I'll give you two such examples. One is, you know, related to fuel and VAT and the fact that, you know, VAT in the last several months has been reduced with a number of states. But yes, there are still a few states that have high VAT, but a number of them have already reduced to thanks to the push of our current sitting minister. The other big thing that I want to bring up at this point is just think about what we have been able to achieve Anirban, you've got a team of professionals who have never owned and run businesses themselves, coming together to start an airline, going to the private equity world, you know, soliciting investments, etc. In a highly regulated industry, and we were able to get our operating certificate two weeks after our first aircraft arrived in India, then the reason I say that is because we seem to get the fact that starting an airline was a good idea. But we were told 1000s and 1000s of time, well, you got it. But you know what, you will never get a license, the government will run you around, the babus will do this. And you know, every sort of derogatory term out there was thrown in our face if you 

Anirban Chowdhury  

And that didn't happen. 

Vinay Dube  

Anirban we got our AOC, two weeks after our aircraft arrived in India, it does not get any more efficient anywhere in the world period.

Anirban Chowdhury  

Right. But I'm talking about the market. I mean, look at how the market is structured, you know, indigo, continues to control 60% of India's domestic traffic. I mean, it's, it's like a gravy train that's running really smoothly. And look at its rivals, I mean, SpiceJet GoAir, Vistara, I wouldn't call them fringe players, but they haven't really been able to expand the way that they had planned or they had announced or they should have, what do you say it will take to disrupt the market dynamics, you know, and does AKASA have it now, obviously, you will say that you're not after market share, and you want to build a great product, etc. But, but there needs to be a certain level of scale. And for that, you will need to, you know, challenge the the market leaders I mean, you know, so what do you think will bring in that change? What do you think will be a good disrupter to this market?

Vinay Dube  

Yeah, so anyone first I will say we're not after market share. The second thing I will say is that, you know, we're fortunate to be launching an airline in what is or, you know, any day now, we'll be the world's third largest, you know, aviation market, and one of the fastest growing. So the way I tell people, I've said this before, that whether Akasa is successful or not, whether we're around or not, India's getting 1000 new aircraft, you know, in the next 10 to 20 years, and so for Akasa, to have, you know, 7200 200 400 of those, you know, 1000 plus new aircraft that are coming, we don't need to challenge anyone, we don't need to go for market share. We need to have satisfied employees, we need to have satisfied customers. And you do that by focusing on the basics.

Anirban Chowdhury  

So you don't think that the incumbents need to shrink or shut down for a new airline to really expand and make it big? No,

Vinay Dube  

absolutely not. And that's the benefit of growing by Aditya. You know, this as well. 

Aditya Ghosh  

Yeah,actually, I'm not a great fan of this word, disrupter and disruption. It kind of makes it like as if you have to come and break things apart. I don't think the Indian aviation industry at all needs anything that needs to be sort of broken and disrupted as such. Will every industry whether it is nutrition, or airlines or hospitality, will it require innovation? That's a motherhood statement. Every business every sector ons requires constant innovation, that innovation comes from being able to understand the customer better. Being able to make sure that the product meets the needs of the customer, and then being able to deliver that product at a more efficient manner than before. And none of that actually has to translate into, or is dependent on anybody shrinking or falling or breaking or whatever it is.

Anirban Chowdhury  

And yet Indigos greatest growth came when Kingfisher Airlines shut down or when Jet Airways went comatose, wouldn't you agree Aditya?

Aditya Ghosh  

So, you know, I was, of course, leading the airline at that time, and seizing of encrypted operations, happened 6 years after Indigo launched his first flight. And definitely, when one market player goes away, every other person does the backing. So not only did Indigo grow, the other airlines grew too, why did Indigo grow faster? Because it had the foresight of having a larger aircraft order. It had the foresight of accelerating airplanes, and it had a product at the right price that came in and captured the imagination of people. And I was there at that time, when we were planning, did we think that we are going to start an airline hoping and planning on somebody else's demise? Absolutely not. And likewise, when we are starting Akasa, just does not occur in our decision set. Now, 15 years from now, 10 years from now, some point of time in the future, when market opportunities open up, we certainly hope that we will have the resources and the foresight to be able to take advantage of that. Look, you can keep putting in resources. But if customers don't like you, and employees don't support you, and nothing matters. Sure.

Anirban Chowdhury  

So Vinay when do we have the first cause of flight? And you know, what are the sectors you're looking at?

Vinay Dube  

Yes, Anirban you'll have to be patient little.

Aditya Ghosh  

Bye the way Anirban I also want to know this, by the way. You know, that's that's a problem and other CEOs kind of keep giving these answers. And then are we are waiting for it I think Vinay was not going to answer it. But I wish it does. I also want to know

Anirban Chowdhury  

I hope he does ya

Vinay Dube  

It's, it's, we'd have to wait until the schedule is published, we're still targeting an end of July start, we still want to start selling here in the next few days. And you know, as we maintain on the sectors look where you know, the bread and butter for us, hopefully, it's going to be the metro to non metro cities. As we said, this is where we think longer term we can focus on. But to be honest, we you know, this is probably the last time I'll you know, I'll talk about sectors etc. Because we generally speaking in aviation, you don't you know, talk about where you're going to launch next. These are not sort of signals one can provide, so I'll be more careful in the future. But yeah, very soon you will find out an Anirban. 

Anirban Chowdhury  

So you'll

Aditya Ghosh  

but we're in a final final stretch, 

Anirban Chowdhury  

right? Yeah. So you mentioned the Jalebis of Allahabad you mentioned Bombay bhel puri's We are guessing now. I mean, you know, the top of mind recall types?

Vinay Dubey  

Yes, yes. You'll have to, you'll have to, you'll have to guess away. But stay to let it's a matter of days 

Anirban Chowdhury  

Right right

Vinay Dubey  

before this, you know, before this becomes more public.

Anirban Chowdhury  

Right We have a final few questions. I mean, you know, I'd like to you to talk a little bit about the promoter, the majority shareholder, Mr. Rakesh Jhunjhunwala. I mean, how is he I mean, you know, he clearly has a vision for the airline. But he's also sort of gone ahead of himself to put it that way in a few occasions, saying that you would get the aviation ministry nod way before you actually would get it. And then calling akasa and ultra low cost carrier, which was probably a miscommunication or misunderstanding, until you Vinay set the record straight in an interview with us, actually, how is he? I mean, is he is he hands off? Is he letting the professionals run the show? You obviously need to show him the money at some point, but does he understand that the airline business has a very long gestation period to profitability Aditya

Aditya Ghosh  

 RJ is a very experienced investor Okay, and and what must've been we are not their one of the many, many, many ideas and management teams that he has supported and worked with over the last several decades. So, you know, with that experience comes the ability to know how to empower, how to stay back how to, you know, what are the things to focus on and things like that? I mean, even though I've known him for many years, you know, being an investor in a publicly listed company, Like Indigo versus where he is today, you know, supporting us in akasa, you get to interact more closely and you get to observe more closely. There are some very, very pleasant surprises one, he's very cool and calm about what he wants to focus on. Second, he's never shy of giving a giving ideas, but never not once. Will he kind of say, Okay, I'm hanging my hat on this. And you know, this is this is I think it's just because it's my idea, you guys must do it. And you could have like, literally heated debates. But at the end of the day, what the management team decides is what happens in the company. Right. But then there are a couple of things that, you know, I think very few people know about RJ and which I must mention, you know, those if there is one topic that he'll raise with Vinay and Me, or any one of us whenever we're meeting, every once in a while, is, you know, what are you doing about employees? What are you doing about their mental health? What are you doing about their well being? How are we thinking about customers? You know, how will they be treated? How will you talk to the first time flyer thik hai, everybody asked once in a while, but when us when a human being asked the same question at every meeting, you kind of realize, okay, this is something that really, there is something that he cares about

Anirban Chowdhury  

when Mr. Jhunjhunwala is failing health must be a matter of concern, too, right? Aditya

Aditya Ghosh  

I spoke to him on Sunday, and he was just something absolutely fine. And asking me all kinds of detailed questions. So So yeah, I mean, look look he's. I mean, you know, we all hope all of us have our health and, but, but this is literally, you know, literally two days back and he'd sounded great to me. And by the way on a lighter note, you know, because just to complete the sort of the description of the personality and all of this and by the way, I keep saying you know, Vinay and I are e yaar Okay, so we I will be distracted with five other things Vinay was like laser focused on one thing and in all of that he's RJ will suddenly say, Hey, do you guys want to have mangoes and in these crazy six seven hour long meetings, he will ensure your well fed there is food coming from home there is some fresh mangoes being served and that is something which is very amusing if you have to if you if you were a fly on the wall I promise you it's like a sitcom because when is the serious person you know who's a foodie but but when he's talking work he's like super serious. I am this you know person flitting around from 111 branch to another. And there is RJ like, you know, knowing what to focus on, but also making sure that we are we are well fed. And Vinay has lost some weight along with me.

Vinay Dubey  

I have put on thanks to Aditya at least 5 kilos . You should never you should never travel with the Aditya if if you're not willing to eat from morning to evening.

Anirban Chowdhury  

Right You're also raising the expectations of the flyers now. I mean they will expect Good food now 

Aditya Ghosh  

no, no, I am the Good Food guy when I when a has terrible taste and food. 

Vinay Dube  

Yes

Aditya Ghosh  

, he's he, you know, I'll tell you this. This interesting story. We are in the US. You know, we we've got a short break. We're in a mall. Vinay need to go out to go run an errand. Now I'm doing nothing. So I am now thinking that okay, you know, here's my business partner. And I'm going to buy some really nice chocolates. So I go hunting for these chocolates. I find them they're expensive. Now I've got it. And I'm like, super excited. Okay. And I 'm saying hey Vinay hear you have to try this out. Vinay looks at these chocolates and he's like, No, it's okay. I'm like you have to try this. This is just like it's amazing and telling you this

Vinay Dube  

 it's the world's best chocolate

Aditya Ghosh  

 it's the world's best chocolate It's alright. And Vinay you can't get him to do something. He doesn't want to do it. He's like, he's like, very dogmatic about what you know. You can go on for hours and hours. Now this I said thik hai yaar what I don't know what is wrong with this guy. So Vinay's like you know, I'll have KitKat $50 Chocolate, we want you to have it and you want KitKat to buy he's a foodie. That's why he talked about only Jalebi.

Anirban Chowdhury  

Kitkat's great too yeah

Aditya Ghosh  

Yeah,

Vinay Dubey  

 I don't have very sophisticated taste in food.

Anirban Chowdhury  

So Vinay I wanted to ask you about your passion for sustainability, you know, there are some stories as well. I mean, you know, you the fact that you use only tal in office and not a tissue box and there are some stories on how many a page one of ET has been used in cleaning up after your you know, after your, you know, dog has sort of done with answering you know, the call of data. So are all of these true, first of all? And how will you bring these to your airline?

Vinay Dube  

Yes. So they're all true. And they're all true. And by the way, I have to give my wife credit for all of that. Because she's, you know, if I'm passionate about the environment, it's only because I have gained that passion from my wife, because she's the one that picks up most of the of the dog poo. And yes, we don't use plastic for it. We use newspapers, it's a bit disgusting. But you know, we're trying to do you know, everything we can, there is no sort of plastic bottles in our house. You know, after I wash my hands in the toilet, I take my own towel along. So all of all of that is true. These are very, very personal items for us. And we cannot be neither Aditya nor myself, can be associated with a business that is not doing the best that they can. Yeah, I mean, look, flying planes with engines that the odd stuff is, is obviously not great for the environment. But we also can't stop progress completely. So our goal is to be the most environmentally progressive airline in the world. And that's what we bring to Akasa it starts with getting the world's most fuel efficient engines. We have announced the use of recycled material in our uniforms, and it's just something that you will see us every step of the way that we can humanly possible for us to make environmentally progressive decisions, you're gonna see them be made at Akasa.

Anirban Chowdhury  

Vinay and Aditya know only too well, the daunting task that is ahead of them, making an entry and a name amongst India's discerning very price sensitive air travelers, building a network and trying to earn money in an extremely tough industry. Rakesh Jhunjhunwala knows it too. And he knows that they are taking on a tough lot. There's market leader indigo, and it's smaller but powerful rivals SpiceJet and go first. Meanwhile, Tata Sons is trying to build an airline group with its latest purchase Air India, and its two other companies Vistara and AirAsia. India. Also on the fringes is Jet Airways, now with the license to fly again, new owners and new plans. In the business, fresh problems crop up every day. The latest staffing issues that have botched up flight schedules of airlines, even as they try to shake off the overhang of the last two years of the COVID 19 pandemic. In all this Akasa will try to make a name for itself with its fleet of bride livery aircraft, a crew that wears suits and sneakers, the promise of good service, good prices, environment friendly operations and smart tech. Whether all this is enough is something that remains to be seen. But this guys are going to turn more and more interesting and colorful blues, the reds, florecent pinks the purples and Golden's and now a tinge of orange. You were listening to On Air with the Akasa boys on the morning brief. 

This episode was produced by Surbhi Modi from the economic times and Saundarya. Jayachandran from Aawaz, Sound Editors, Indranil Bhattacharjee and Rajas Naik from et and Swati Joshi from Aawaz, executive producers Anupria Bahadur and Arijit Barman from et, do you tune into et play? Our recently launched platform for all audio content, including the morning brief. The morning brief airs every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Do you share this episode if you liked it? This is your host Anirban Chowdhury. Wishing you a very good week ahead. Thank you

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