Akasa Air’s Ambitious Green Dream: Aiming to Be the World’s Most Sustainable Airline

Aditya Ghosh, a co-founder of Akasa Air, presented the airline’s bold goal of being the greenest in the world at the Oxford India Forum. Speaking at the function, Ghosh underlined that this objective is more of an aspirational ideal than a concrete goal, pointing out the major obstacles to switching to sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), such as high costs and a restricted supply.

Ghosh outlined India’s more ambitious aviation goals, which include a target of 100 million passengers using 10% blended SAF by 2030 and an estimated $340 million increase in ticket costs. Even with more than 1,000 aircraft on order and over 600 in service, Ghosh noted that India’s aviation industry is still in its infancy. He thinks that not even tripling or tripling the number of aircraft will be sufficient to lower the cost of air travel and enable everyone to use it.

Akasa Air is putting a number of measures into place to address fuel consumption. According to Ghosh, “the engines we use burn 20% less fuel than comparable engines,” and their aircraft’s winglets increase lift efficiency. To save fuel, the airline also uses single-engine taxiing and straight route. Akasa Air has also made great strides toward sustainability by eliminating the use of water cannon salutes for new aircraft, saving 360,000 liters of water, and creating flight attendant uniforms from recycled marine plastic trash.

According to Ghosh, a number of smaller breakthroughs, such better wing designs and electric or hybrid aircraft, will be necessary to achieve sustainable flying. He stressed that improvements in aerodynamics, not engine technology, are predicted to result in significant fuel savings. Ghosh also emphasized the necessity of market or regulatory measures to encourage the deployment of more recent, fuel-efficient aircraft. Akasa Air replaces its fleet every six to nine years in order to maintain efficiency and lower emissions.

Ghosh addressed the problem of striking a balance between low-cost operations and the greater costs of SAF, acknowledging the challenges but reaffirming the airline’s commitment to its sustainability objectives.

On June 15, 2024, the first Oxford India Forum was hosted at Saïd Business School. It honored India’s global prominence and discussed the steps that need to be taken for sustained innovation and progress. “The Oxford India Forum is dedicated to showcasing India’s dynamic growth story and facilitating meaningful dialogue among global leaders, experts, and aspiring students,” said Oxford India Forum founder and chairwoman Sidharth Sethi.

He underlined how crucial the forum is to influencing conversations about India’s influence on the world stage and positioning itself as a major venue for showcasing India’s global contributions.