Will India’s newest airline Akasa’s launch help bring down airfares?

India’s newest airline Akasa Air, backed by billionaire investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, began commercial operations on Sunday with the first flight on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route. The low-cost carrier started operating 28 weekly flights between Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

While Akasa has a total of 72 Boeing planes on order, it initially started operations with two fuel-efficient 737 MAX aircraft. Akasa competes directly with other budget carriers like IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoFirst. But its network strategy will be to connect metro cities with smaller towns across India.

More locations will be added in a phased manner as the airline plans to deploy two planes each month in the first year.