Akasa Air

If you stand at the fence in India, a lot looks like IndiGo – until a white 737 with a bright orange tail and purple titles rolls into frame. That is Akasa Air, the country’s youngest major airline. It only took off in August 2022, flies exclusively the Boeing 737 MAX and is growing fast anyway. Here you learn how to place Akasa with confidence, how to tell the fleet variants apart and where to catch the airline outside India.

Akasa Air at a glance

Akasa Air is an Indian low-cost carrier based in Mumbai. It is operated by the company SNV Aviation. The idea behind it comes from a team of experienced industry people who had previously worked at other Indian airlines such as Jet Airways. CEO Vinay Dube has been at the helm from the start. In 2021 the well-known Indian investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala came in as a major backer; he died shortly after the first flight in August 2022.

The timeline is remarkably short for an airline:

Date	Event
October 2021	No-objection certificate from India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation
November 2021	First order for 72 Boeing 737 MAX
December 2021	Brand and logo unveiled, slogan “It’s Your Sky”
June 2022	Delivery of the first Boeing 737-8
July 2022	Air operator certificate from the DGCA authority
August 7, 2022	First scheduled flight Mumbai–Ahmedabad
March 2024	First international flight Mumbai–Doha
January 2025	Admission to the industry association IATA

The name “Akasa” goes back to the Sanskrit word for sky – hence the slogan, too. By its own account the airline now connects 30 destinations in India and seven abroad and has carried more than 31 million passengers. The business model is classic low-cost: a single aircraft family, only economy on board, food, seat selection and other extras for an additional fee. How this model works in general is explained in the article How budget airlines work.

The road was not without setbacks. In late summer 2023 several pilots switched at short notice to Air India Express; Akasa then had to cancel over 700 flights. The airline has recovered from that and is continuing its growth.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code QP: appears in the flight number, so on the departure board, boarding pass and in schedules.
• ICAO code AKJ: appears in the air traffic control flight plan and on most flight trackers.
• Callsign AKASA AIR: this is how the crew identifies itself on the radio.

Like all IATA codes, the code QP has no meaningful connection to the name – it is a pure identifier. Why there are two code systems and which one spotters need for what is explained in IATA and ICAO codes explained.

The fleet: only Boeing 737 MAX

Akasa relies uncompromisingly on one aircraft family. According to the airline, 43 Boeing 737 MAX are currently flying, all with LEAP-1B engines from the manufacturer CFM International. Akasa advertises one of the youngest fleets in the world – hardly surprising for an airline whose first aircraft arrived in 2022.

The order is more exciting. It has grown in three steps to 226 aircraft: 72 aircraft in November 2021, four more 737-8s in summer 2023 and finally 150 aircraft in January 2024. With the last order, the longest version of the family came into play, too.

Type	Role at Akasa	Seats	Spotter tip
Boeing 737-8 (737 MAX 8)	First type in the fleet since 2022	189	Base model of the MAX generation
Boeing 737-8-200	More densely seated variant, already in service and ordered in large numbers	197	Additional emergency exits behind the wing
Boeing 737-10	Ordered in 2024, deliveries planned into the 2030s	–	Longest 737, not yet in service at Akasa

The Boeing 737 MAX 8 is the type with which it all began. The 737-8-200 is a version with additional doors that allows more seats in the same fuselage length – exactly what a budget carrier needs on heavily booked domestic routes. The 737 MAX 10 is the stretched variant that Akasa will only bring into the fleet in larger numbers in a few years. The manufacturer of all three is Boeing.

A side note: some Akasa aircraft were financed through sale-and-leaseback, meaning sold and leased back. That is common in the industry and changes nothing for you at the spot – the aircraft keep flying in Akasa colors. You can find more background in the article on aircraft leasing.

737-8 or 737-8-200? How to tell them apart

Because Akasa flies only MAX aircraft, the usual question “NG or MAX?” falls away. Instead you have to distinguish within the MAX family – and that is trickier, because the 737-8 and 737-8-200 have the same length, the same engines and the same winglets.

The most reliable feature is therefore the doors behind the wing. Photograph the aircraft from the side, ideally while taxiing or on short final, and zoom in later on the area between the wing trailing edge and the tail. Compared with older 737 generations, you recognize the MAX immediately anyway by the serrated trailing edges of the engine cowlings and by the split winglet. The guide How to tell the Boeing 737 Original, Classic, NG and MAX apart shows all generations side by side; for wingtips specifically, Recognizing winglets, Sharklets and Split Scimitars helps.

How to recognize Akasa Air

The livery is one of the most striking in the Indian market. The fuselage is mostly white, with the name “Akasa Air” in purple on both sides. From the rear lower fuselage, orange runs upward into the tail, where the logo sits: a pointed, “rising A” that, according to the airline, evokes the sky, the sunrise and a bird in flight. Engines and winglets are orange, too – that is the detail by which you recognize Akasa even from a greater distance or in backlight. Blue accents on some edges come on top of that.

According to Akasa, orange stands for warmth and optimism, purple for passion and independence. Which building blocks make up a livery in general is explained in Livery design explained.

At the rear, the VT registration reveals the Indian registry. All aircraft registered in India carry this prefix – including those of IndiGo, Air India and SpiceJet. How registrations are built and how to read them is shown in Understanding aircraft registrations.

Network and spotting chances

Akasa is a domestic airline with a growing international business. The most important bases are Mumbai and Bengaluru. From there and from other cities, Akasa flies mainly on heavily booked domestic routes. According to the airline, it is now 30 destinations in India. Navi Mumbai Airport and the new airport near Noida in the Greater Delhi area are seen as important building blocks for further growth – how strongly Akasa is present there is best checked in the current schedule.

International flights have been under way since March 2024. The first international flight went from Mumbai to Doha. The network now includes Doha, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Riyadh, Jeddah, Phuket and Hanoi, among others. That puts the emphasis clearly on the Gulf, where many Indian workers live, complemented by holiday destinations in Southeast Asia.

For spotters from Europe this means: you won’t see Akasa in Frankfurt or Munich but while traveling. At Doha Hamad Airport Akasa shares the apron with Qatar Airways, at Abu Dhabi Airport with Etihad Airways – with Etihad, Akasa also agreed a codeshare in late 2024. In Kuwait you meet the orange 737s next to Jazeera Airways. And at Delhi Airport they stand next to the rest of the Indian scene: IndiGo, Air India, Air India Express and SpiceJet.

Because the fleet is still manageable, registration collecting is worthwhile with Akasa: with some persistence you can get a good part of the fleet, and every new delivery adds a new VT registration. How to approach the hobby systematically is explained in Collecting registrations.

Akasa in the Indian market

India is one of the fastest-growing air travel markets in the world, and Akasa started in a market that IndiGo leads by a wide margin. Add to that the Air India group with Air India and Air India Express. Akasa positions itself as a challenger in the low-cost segment and relies on a uniform, young fleet – an approach reminiscent of airlines such as Ryanair or Southwest, which also bet entirely on the 737.

For you as a spotter that is an advantage: where IndiGo flies almost only Airbus, Akasa is pure Boeing. The aircraft type alone therefore pre-sorts who is rolling in. SpiceJet does fly 737s too, but with a different livery and in part older generations.

Airline	Main fleet	Typical color	Recognition tip
Akasa Air	Boeing 737 MAX	Orange and purple on white	Orange engines
IndiGo	Airbus A320 family	Indigo blue	Almost always Airbus
Air India Express	Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 family	Orange and turquoise	Patterned tails
SpiceJet	Boeing 737	Red	Red tail

Common mix-ups

• Mistaking Akasa for Air India Express – both use orange, but Akasa combines it with purple and flies only 737 MAX.
• Thinking every orange 737 in India is Akasa – Air India Express also flies 737-8s in orange tones. Pay attention to titles and tail.
• Treating the 737-8 and 737-8-200 as the same – the -200 has additional emergency exits behind the wing, and the type code alone often doesn’t help.
• Confusing QP with a country or place abbreviation – IATA codes are pure airline identifiers.
• Thinking Akasa is an old airline – Akasa has only been in scheduled service since 2022 and has nothing to do with earlier Indian airlines, even though many founders came from there.
• Expecting the 737 MAX 10 in your logbook already – it is on order but not yet in service at Akasa.

Conclusion

Akasa Air is the newcomer among India’s big airlines – and exciting precisely for that reason. The fleet is young, uniform and growing year after year, and the livery with the orange rear section and orange engines is easy to recognize. If you look more closely, you can tell the 737-8 from the 737-8-200 and collect the VT registrations of a fleet that is still manageable. In Europe, Akasa remains a rare guest; in India and the Gulf, by contrast, the airline has long been part of everyday life at the fence.