Akasa Air is a low-cost carrier operating across Asia with a fleet of approximately 25 aircraft.

Launched as a digital-first airline, Akasa Air set out to establish fully automated operations from its very first flight, avoiding manual processes that typically slow down scalability and operational control in early-stage airline operations.

With inflight retail and catering positioned as a core ancillary revenue stream, the airline required a production-ready inflight point-of-sale and inventory management system at launch.

With only 10 days between contract signing and first flight, Akasa Air partnered with Forthcode to deploy nGO Inflight Retail and Catering Management across its fleet ensuring the airline went live with fully digitized inflight retail operations from day one.

As a startup airline, Akasa Air faced a fundamentally different challenge compared to established carriers. Rather than replacing legacy systems, the airline needed to build operational capability at speed, with no tolerance for manual or transitional processes.

• Establishing inflight retail and catering operations before the airline’s first commercial flight
• Eliminating manual inventory tracking, sales recording, and post-flight reconciliation from day one
• Enabling inflight sales in offline environments without compromising transaction reliability or fraud control
• Ensuring financial, tax, and crew incentive calculations were system-driven and audit-ready
• Training a newly recruited crew force at scale within an extremely compressed timeline

The biggest constraint was time. Procurement was completed just 10 days before the first flight, leaving no margin for phased rollouts or prolonged testing cycles. Akasa Air needed a proven inflight retail platform that could be deployed, integrated, and adopted immediately without operational risk.

Forthcode was selected based on its ability to execute at speed while meeting the operational rigor required in airline environments.

• Proven speed of execution, with the ability to deliver production-grade systems in compressed timelines
• Robust offline payment and transaction capability, critical for inflight operations
• Positive references from other airlines already using nGO
• Familiarity with the product among Akasa Air team members who had used nGO in previous roles
• A solution designed specifically for low-cost carrier inflight retail operations

For Akasa Air, Forthcode offered a rare combination of startup agility and aviation-grade operational reliability.

Forthcode deployed nGO Inflight Retail and Catering Management, providing Akasa Air with a fully automated inflight retail ecosystem from day one.

Beyond core retail workflows, Akasa Air also implemented:

• Inflight NPS and customer engagement modules, enabling structured passenger feedback during flights
• Patent-pending offline card transaction fraud detection and prevention, ensuring transaction integrity even without connectivity

nGO was integrated with Akasa Air’s enterprise systems, including:

• Navitaire (PSS) for passenger and flight data
• AIMS (CRSS) for crew-related workflows
• SAP (ERP) for finance, accounting, and compliance

This ensured inflight sales data flowed seamlessly into downstream financial and operational processes without manual intervention.

The implementation was completed in an exceptionally compressed 10-day window, from contract signing to live operations.

Forthcode deployed on-ground teams to work in parallel across multiple streams:

• Configuration of master data, including menus, pricing, taxes, and inventory structures
• System integrations and validation with airline IT and operations teams
• Intensive crew training, covering approximately 250 crew members, conducted alongside operational setup

A train-the-trainer model was used to accelerate knowledge transfer while ensuring long-term self-sufficiency within Akasa Air’s operations and training teams.

Following go-live, Forthcode conducted structured post-implementation audits across operational workflows. These audits part of Forthcode’s standard methodology validated transaction accuracy, inventory reconciliation, crew usage patterns, and financial outputs, ensuring stability and confidence in live operations.

Revenue & Financial Impact

• 3x increase in inflight ancillary revenue, driven by reliable inflight sales and crew adoption
• Inventory variance reduced to almost zero, eliminating over-uplift and reconciliation discrepancies
• Significant improvement in on-time tax calculations and regulatory readiness

Operational Improvements

• Fully automated inflight retail operations from the airline’s first flight
• Elimination of manual sales recording and post-flight reconciliation
• Accurate, system-driven crew performance bonus calculations, improving transparency and trust

Passenger & Crew Experience

• Improved inflight customer engagement through structured NPS collection
• Better passenger interaction enabled by faster, more reliable inflight sales
• Higher crew confidence due to dependable offline transactions and simplified workflows

Together, these outcomes allowed Akasa Air to scale inflight retail operations seamlessly while maintaining tight operational control from launch.

• Starting with fully automated inflight retail operations enables faster scale and stronger financial control for startup airlines
• Speed of execution is critical but must be paired with aviation-grade reliability
• Offline-first inflight POS systems are essential for revenue protection and crew adoption
• Early integration with PSS, crew, and ERP systems prevents downstream operational debt

For Akasa Air, partnering with Forthcode ensured inflight retail and catering operations were production-ready from day one demonstrating how the right technology foundation can support rapid airline launches without compromising operational discipline.