Akasa Air

Is Akasa Air safe?

Akasa Air has had no accidents since it started flying in 2022, and every aircraft it flies is a Boeing 737 MAX delivered new. We score it 80. The main reason it is not higher is time: four years and about 40 aircraft is a short record, and the regulator's 2024 audits found the kind of training and paperwork gaps that a fast-growing young airline is prone to.

A short, clean record

Akasa began flying in August 2022. It flies Indian domestic routes and to the Gulf, including the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

There is no Akasa entry in the Aviation Safety Network accident data, and India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has published no report on an Akasa flight. The reported events are minor: bird strikes in October 2022 and October 2025, both followed by safe landings, and an April 2026 ground collision at Delhi in which a taxiing SpiceJet 737's winglet hit the tail of a stationary Akasa aircraft.

For comparison, IndiGo also has no fatal accidents, but over 20 years and at about ten times the size. That is why its accident score is higher.

What the regulator found in 2024

Late 2024 brought a run of enforcement. According to ch-aviation:

• After a May 2024 spot audit at Akasa's head office in Gurugram, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) found training lapses, including practical training without the necessary approvals, and fined the airline ₹30 lakh.
• In late November 2024, a show-cause notice followed because a pilot involved in a hard landing in March had not been given corrective training.
• On 9 December 2024, another notice cited "poor maintenance standards" and lapses found during an August inspection at Bengaluru.
• On 16 December 2024, a third notice said Akasa's operations manual was overdue for its six-monthly revision.

Some Akasa pilots had also raised concerns about training, which the airline called baseless. None of these findings came with an accident or serious incident, and we have found no new safety enforcement against Akasa in 2025 or 2026. But three notices in a month at an airline of 26 aircraft is a lot.

The fleet: new 737 MAXs, slowly

Akasa had 42 aircraft on 1 September 2026, when it took delivery of a 737-8-200 at the new Navi Mumbai airport. That was its 11th delivery of 2026. The fleet mixes the standard 737-8 with the 737-8-200, a higher-density version with an extra pair of exits.

Boeing's production problems slowed Akasa sharply in 2024 and 2025. In March 2025, Aviation A2Z reported that only about 465 of its 775 pilots were flying, because aircraft had not arrived. Idle pilots lose recent practice, and Akasa has to keep them current in the simulator. The airline has a firm order for 226 737 MAX jets in total.

Akasa is an IATA member, so it holds IOSA registrationIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary, and India has FAA Category 1FAA IASAThe US FAA's check of whether a country's aviation regulator meets ICAO standards. Category 1 means it does; Category 2 means it does not.More in the glossary.

What about the 737 MAX?

Akasa flies only one family, so its record is tied to the MAX. The type had two fatal crashes, Lion Air in October 2018 and Ethiopian Airlines in March 2019, both caused by a flight control system (MCAS) that acted on a single faulty sensor. The MAX was grounded worldwide for about 20 months while Boeing changed the software and pilots were retrained. Akasa took its first aircraft in 2022, after the fixes, and there has been no fatal MAX accident since. A single type also has an upside: pilots, engineers and spare parts all focus on one aircraft.

Before you fly Akasa

• Expect a 737 MAX. If you want to know the variant, the 737-8-200 has slightly more seats and an extra pair of exit doors behind the wing.
• Mind the monsoon. From June to September, approaches into Mumbai, Bengaluru and the west coast can be bumpy. Keep the belt fastened whenever you are seated.
• Know your rights. The DGCA fined Akasa in December 2024 for late compensation to passengers denied boarding; Indian rules entitle you to compensation if you are bumped from a confirmed booking.

How we scored it

A new fleet (92) and a clean, if short, accident record (88) give Akasa a strong score. Serious incidents (70) are held down by the 2024 audit findings, and oversight (72) is the same as for other Indian airlines. For other Indian low-cost options, see Air India Express and SpiceJet.