Akasa Air, one of India’s youngest but fastest growing carriers, has announced a significant leadership development as co founder and Chief Commercial Officer Praveen Iyer prepares to transition out of the airline after a five year journey. The move, revealed on February 11, 2026, marks a pivotal moment in the airline’s evolution while also underscoring its commitment to continuity, with Iyer scheduled to work closely with the leadership team to ensure a smooth and structured transition through April 30, 2026.
A Defining Five Year Journey Comes Full Circle
Praveen Iyer has been at the heart of Akasa Air’s story from its inception, joining the founding team well before the airline’s first commercial flight took off in August 2022. As Co Founder and Chief Commercial Officer, he helped translate a start up vision into a functioning airline during one of the most competitive and challenging eras for Indian aviation. His remit covered network planning, pricing and revenue strategy, distribution partnerships, and customer proposition, all of which were critical for a new entrant seeking to carve out space alongside established full service and low cost rivals.
Under his commercial stewardship, Akasa Air steadily expanded from a modest domestic footprint to a pan Indian network and then to short haul international routes, including services to the Gulf and Southeast Asia. Industry observers credit Iyer with building a commercial framework that balanced disciplined yields with attractive fares, allowing Akasa Air to achieve a domestic market share of around 5 percent within just a few years of launch. That performance has been notable in a market where capacity, pricing and consolidation have been in constant flux.
The airline has also positioned itself as a customer friendly, digitally savvy carrier, with a product and pricing philosophy geared toward younger, value conscious travelers. Many of these differentiators, from fare families to ancillaries and distribution strategy, were shaped in large part by Iyer’s commercial vision. His departure, therefore, is not just a leadership change but the closing of an important chapter in the airline’s brief yet eventful history.
Structured Transition Through April 2026
Akasa Air has been careful to present Iyer’s exit as a measured and planned transition rather than a sudden departure. In its statement, the airline emphasized that after a remarkable five year journey, Iyer will continue to partner closely with the leadership team to ensure a smooth and structured handover through April 30, 2026. This unusually long transition window reflects both the complexity of the Chief Commercial Officer portfolio and the airline’s desire to maintain continuity across commercial operations.
For an airline that remains in a rapid build out phase, stability at the top of its commercial function is crucial. Schedules, fleet deployment, international route launches, distribution contracts, and revenue management systems all work on long lead times. By keeping Iyer engaged for more than a year from the date of announcement, Akasa Air is effectively creating a buffer to minimize disruption, transfer institutional knowledge, and embed new leadership into ongoing projects without abrupt shifts in strategy.
Such a transition approach is common in global aviation, where senior executives often serve extended notice periods to guide airlines through capacity growth, seasonality cycles, and regulatory milestones. In Akasa Air’s case, the period until April 2026 will coincide with planned fleet additions and continued international expansion, making Iyer’s advisory and transitional role especially valuable even as he prepares to embark on the next chapter of his career.
New Commercial Leadership and Technology Driven Strategy
As part of the same announcement, Akasa Air confirmed that its Chief Information Officer, Anand Srinivasan, will step into the role of commercial head, effectively succeeding Iyer at the helm of the airline’s commercial function. This internal appointment signals a deliberate choice to align Akasa Air’s commercial strategy even more closely with its technology and data capabilities, areas that have been central to the airline’s identity since launch.
Srinivasan has led the technology team responsible for building platforms across revenue systems, operational technology, digital products, and data and analytics. Elevating a technology leader into the top commercial role underscores Akasa Air’s view that future airline competitiveness will be shaped as much by digital architecture and predictive analytics as by traditional levers like pricing and distribution alone. It also ensures a degree of continuity, given that IT systems and commercial strategy at Akasa Air have been designed to work in tandem from the outset.
During the transition, the airline has initiated a search for a new Chief Information Officer, while the IT function will temporarily report to Chief Financial Officer Ankur Goel. The CFO’s oversight of IT in this interim phase aims to keep investment, risk management, and technology execution closely coordinated, particularly as the carrier navigates fresh rounds of capital allocation for fleet and digital infrastructure.
Leadership Changes Against a Backdrop of Rapid Growth
Iyer’s departure is the second high profile exit from Akasa Air’s founding leadership in a span of four months, following the resignation of co founder and Senior Vice President for international operations, Neelu Khatri, in October 2025. Khatri played a critical role in building the airline’s international business, especially as it expanded into key Gulf markets and firmed up plans for broader regional connectivity across the SAARC and ASEAN regions.
Alongside these co founder exits, several senior executives have also moved on in recent months, including leaders overseeing long term operations strategy, aircraft acquisition and leasing, and catering. Together, these changes mark a phase of transition from a start up style founding bench to a more diversified senior leadership structure designed to carry the airline into its next growth phase.
Despite the churn, Akasa Air continues to project confidence in its trajectory. Backed initially by the family of the late investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, the airline secured additional capital in 2025 from prominent Indian family offices associated with business leaders such as Azim Premji and Ranjan Pai. The fresh funding has underpinned fleet expansion, network development and technology investments, allowing Akasa Air to keep pace with demand even as aircraft delivery timelines from Boeing have occasionally slowed growth.
Fleet Expansion, New Routes and Market Share
The leadership transition comes at a moment when Akasa Air is restarting and accelerating fleet induction after a period of slower expansion triggered by delays in Boeing deliveries. The airline has already added three aircraft in 2026, and plans to induct about a dozen more by year end. Its fleet now comprises roughly 33 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, providing the backbone for both domestic services and a growing roster of international flights.
On the network front, the airline has been steadily extending its reach beyond India. In recent years it has launched services to destinations in the Gulf and announced plans for routes into Southeast Asia, including Thailand. These moves dovetail with Akasa Air’s earlier strategy statements that highlighted the SAARC and ASEAN regions as natural next steps once the domestic base was firmly established.
Domestically, the carrier has built a presence on key trunk routes while also tapping demand on under served city pairs. With an estimated 5 percent share of the Indian domestic market, Akasa Air is not yet among the largest carriers by capacity, but its growth curve and load factors have drawn attention in an industry where competition has intensified after recent consolidations and exits.
Implications for Indian Travellers and the Wider Aviation Market
For travelers, the leadership changes at Akasa Air are unlikely to translate into immediate visible shifts in service. Schedules, existing routes and customer facing products are expected to continue broadly unchanged in the short term, particularly given the lengthy transition window that extends to April 2026. The airline has an incentive to reassure customers and partners that it remains focused on reliability, affordability and a consistent onboard experience.
Over the medium term, however, the elevation of a technology focused leader to head commercial operations could further sharpen Akasa Air’s digital proposition. Passengers could see more personalized offers, refined pricing models, loyalty enhancements and a tighter integration of mobile, web and airport experiences as the airline leverages data to differentiate itself in a crowded marketplace.
At an industry level, Iyer’s exit is a reminder of the dynamism and fluidity of leadership in India’s aviation sector, where start up airlines often evolve rapidly in structure and strategy once they move beyond the initial launch and stabilization phase. As Akasa Air matures, it is entering a stage where institutional processes, scalable systems and second generation leadership teams become as important as the founding vision that got the airline off the ground.
The Road Ahead for Akasa Air
Between now and April 2026, Akasa Air’s priorities are expected to revolve around disciplined expansion, operational reliability and the integration of new leadership into its commercial engine. Fleet induction plans will continue to shape route decisions, with additional domestic frequencies and new international sectors likely to be announced as aircraft arrive and airport slots become available.
The airline will also be under pressure to sustain profitability and cash flow as it adds capacity in a market where fuel prices, currency movements and competitive fares all pose ongoing challenges. Its recent capital injections, coupled with a data driven commercial strategy, give Akasa Air some room to maneuver, but investors and regulators alike will be watching closely to see how the carrier performs during this leadership transition.
For Praveen Iyer, the extended transition period offers an opportunity to cement his legacy by ensuring that the systems, teams and strategies he helped build are well handed over to his successors. For Akasa Air, it is a chance to demonstrate that it has moved beyond the vulnerabilities of a start up to become a robust, professionally managed carrier capable of weathering change at the top without losing momentum.
As the airline navigates this next chapter, Indian travelers and the wider aviation community will be tracking not only where Akasa Air flies, but how its evolving leadership and technology forward commercial focus shape the future of low cost, high efficiency air travel across India and the broader region.