Akasa, the airline, sponsored by Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, has hired Ankur Goel, the former head of treasury and investor relations at IndiGo, as its Chief Financial Officer. Former IndiGo president Aditya Ghosh is also onboarding the airline launched by former Jet Airways CEO Vinay Dube. It’s also in talks with Boeing about adding 737 Max planes to its fleet.
Goel was a key member of the team that led IndiGo’s initial public offering (IPO) in 2015, which raised Rs 3,000 crore, and its subsequent Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) in 2017 garnered roughly Rs 4,000 crore.
According to a Business Standard story, Akasa plans to commence operations by the summer of 2022.
The airline is said to have received a Rs 247.50 crore investment from Jhunjhunwala. Madhav Bhatkuly, the founder of the investment fund New Horizon, has put in Rs 6 crore. Bhatkuly is noted for spotting significant firms early on, having invested in Axis Bank, Apollo Hospitals, Sun Pharma, and Godrej Consumer.
According to news reports, Vinay Dube will be the CEO, while Praveen Iyer will be the Chief Commercial Officer, with Goel serving as the CFO. Anand Srinivasan, the previous head of revenue management at Go Air, has been named chief information officer, and Bhavin Joshi has been named senior vice president of finance and aircraft leasing. Former Jet Airways executives Belson Coutinho, Adam Voss, and Ajit Baghchandani will lead marketing, engineering, and inflight services.
Although the aviation industry has suffered a setback, Jhunjhunwala in an interview stated that he is optimistic about India’s aviation sector demand.
