Belson Coutinho, Co-Founder and COO of Akasa Air, describes the inception of Akasa Air's distinctive sneaker uniforms during the airline's confidential early planning stages.
“When we were building the airline we were just few of us. It was a secret project. I wanted somebody to help me without letting our secrets out that you're working on an airline brand. And my daughter was in college. She was I said, would you like to intern and help me? So you're studying, but spending time to help me on a day to day basis. So in fact, she wrote the brief and she was the one who recommended sneakers.”
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More from Belson Coutinho
Disclosure
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AssertionSupported
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AssertionPartly supported
Coutinho: Akasa Air Launched Exclusively via Digital Channels and Press Without Billboards
“We didn't do big ad campaigns to launch the airline. Because we are a digital first airline. Right. And we launched this purely on digital platforms. So there was, there were no large ad campaigns that you would have seen on billboards and stuff like that. It …”
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AssertionSupported
Coutinho: Airline Team Launched First IATA E-Ticket Booking in April 2004
“I think in 2004 was our first online booking with the IATA defined e-tickets came into play. I remember in April of 2004 we just launched it late in the evening and we suddenly saw somebody book his first ticket”
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AssertionSupported
Indian Airport ID Checks Began to Prevent E-Ticket Printout Fraud
“When you have an online ticket, you had to print it. Anybody could make four copies of it. So we had to work with the security forces, the airport, put a system in place. You had to use your photo ID to enter. So those are the systems and processes we put in w…”
Belson CoutinhoJun 11, 2026▶ 14:21S2Ep12: Decoding New Age Aviation in India with Akasa ft. Belson Coutinho
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