Troubled Airline Go First Extends Flight Cancellations Till May 12

Crisis-hit airline Go First on Friday extended the cancellation of all its flights until May 12 amid uncertainty over its future.

The Wadia Group-owned airline, formerly known as GoAir, has filed a plea for voluntary insolvency resolution proceedings before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), which reserved its order on Thursday.

The appeal is aimed at restructuring the airline's debt and liabilities, which have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The first major airline collapse since 2019 underlines the fierce competition in a sector dominated by IndiGo and the recent merger of Air India and Vistara under the Tata conglomerate.

The airline said in a tweet that it would issue a full refund to the original mode of payment for the cancelled flights.

It had initially suspended flights for three days starting from May 3, but later extended the suspension till May 9 and then May 12.

On Thursday, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the aviation regulator, said that Go First had suspended sale of tickets till May 15 and asked it to refund tickets for its cancelled flights.

The airline's effort to start insolvency proceedings, meanwhile, has become ensnared in a tussle with aircraft lessors after they asked the aviation regulator to deregister some of its planes as a step towards taking them back.

Some lessors opposed Go Airlines (India) Ltd's plea at the first hearing of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on Thursday, after the airline had blamed "faulty" Pratt & Whitney engines this week for the grounding of about half of its fleet.

The cash-strapped airline wants the tribunal to accept its plea and is seeking an interim moratorium to save its assets, a move the lessors oppose.

GY Aviation Lease, SMBC Aviation Capital, Pembroke Aircraft Leasing and some others have submitted requests to take back at least 20 planes on Thursday, the regulator's website shows.

Go First had to ground more than half its 54 Airbus 320 neos fitted with Raytheon owned P&W engines by April.

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