Edition 45
A day after May day last year, came the “May day” call from Go FIRST (erstwhile Go Air) as it filed for voluntary bankruptcy and suspended operations. What followed post this was nothing but a nightmare for the leasing industry whose aircraft were with the airline.
The lessors appointed lawyers, who in turn argued to have possession of the aircraft which did not happen. This was followed by orders to maintain the aircraft – which too has not happened well going by the looks of the planes at the airport. From Mopa to Delhi and Nagpur to Mumbai, airports were finding it hard to park the Go FIRST aircraft leading to multiple bays being blocked for operations.
With the aircraft deregistered, there will be a lot of work for engineering consultancies to coordinate, repair, make the planes air worthy and file the paperwork to take them out of India or find an airline in India to operate them. The last part worked very well for Jet Airways. Will it be the same now? The year of grounding has led to a lot of challenges. At the time of grounding, 25 of the planes were grounded due to engine issues. One does not know how many more engines would be grounded based on the Pratt & Whitney engine powder issue which came up towards the last quarter of 2023. That makes only the 5 A320ceo attractive, provided they were maintained well.
Go Air was always on the edge, for many did not expect it would survive this long but at the same time most did not expect it would go away in a whisker. While airlines like Akasa Air have gone against the wind to scale up quickly and fly international and the likes of AirAsia India being accused of corruption to lobby to fly international quickly, Go Air did not go international for a very long time. The airline had one of the highest churn amongst CXOs, with a list which is so long that it is not documented anywhere. The inevitable seemed like writing on the wall multiple times, until it really went in a jiffy.
With the airplanes deregistered, there is little left. The two bidders may still be interested. It may well be worth not going ahead and being in a limbo like Jet Airways resolution process. In hindsight, the name change to Go FIRST was taken very seriously, it just went FIRST while SpiceJet survived.
You can now order Network Thoughts baggage tags and/or book marks!
Follow NetworkThoughts on Twitter, Facebook, Telegram and YouTube.