At the Wings India air show on January 18, Akasa Air announced that it had made a purchase order for 150 Boeing aircraft. The procurement deal includes a combination of 737 MAX 10 and 737 MAX 8-200 jets. 

An indicative list price of around $133 million for the Max 10 and about $100 million for the Max 8-200 can be calculated, considering other recent deals for the same type of aircraft. Averaging them puts Akasa Air’s order value at as much as $17.5 billion. 

The announcement comes just two weeks after the Alaska Airlines incident when a door plug panel blew off a Boeing Max 9 variant shortly after takeoff. 

Akasa Air’s total order book now stands at 226 aircraft with this recent deal, making it the only Indian airline in civil aviation history to amass an order book exceeding 200 aircraft within just 17 months of commencing operations. 

Currently, the less than two-year-old airline operates a fleet of 22 Max jets and is scheduled to receive deliveries of a total of 204 aircraft over the next eight years. Akasa’s Chief Financial Officer Ankur Goel said that the airline would continue to rely primarily on sale and leaseback financing for its new order. 

Akasa Air gave its initial aircraft acquisition order for 72 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in 2021. Then, in June 2023, the airline increased its fleet with an additional order for 4 Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft.