Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has canceled the registration of 54 aircraft of Go First Airline today i.e. on May 1. On April 26, the Delhi High Court had asked for deregistration of the aircraft taken on lease by Go First within 5 working days. After this the aviation regulator has taken this action. Cash-starved budget airline Go First has been closed since May 3 and is going through voluntary bankruptcy process. Last year, on May 2, 2023, the airline said that it was canceling all its flights for May 3, 4 and 5. Since then, Go First has been continuously extending the date of suspending flights. The companies that had sought to release the planes included Pembroke Aviation, Accipiter Investments Aircrafts 2 Limited, EOS Aviation and SMBC Aviation. The companies had filed a petition in the Delhi High Court demanding the release of the planes which were given on lease to Go First. NCLAT had also upheld the order of NCLT on May 22, under which Go First’s petition for declaring it bankrupt was accepted. Understand the whole matter: The airline owes Rs 6,521 crore to lenders. Go First owes Rs 6,521 crore to its lenders. Acute Ratings and Research had said in its January 19 report that Central Bank of India had the highest exposure of Rs 1,987 crore, followed by Bank of Baroda at Rs 1,430 crore, Deutsche Bank at Rs 1,320 crore and IDBI Bank at Rs 58 crore. was due. Had to stop operations due to lack of supply of engines. The airline had claimed that it had to stop its operations due to lack of supply of engines. American aircraft engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney (PW) was to supply the engine to Go First, but it did not supply it on time. In such a situation, Go First had to ground more than half the aircraft of its fleet. He suffered huge loss due to this. Due to the flight not flying, he was short of cash and there was no money left even to fill the fuel. These engines were used in the airline’s A20 Neo aircraft. The first flight from Mumbai to Ahmedabad was flown in 2005. Go First is the budget airline of Wadia Group. According to the company’s website, Go First was launched on April 29, 2004. Operated the first flight from Mumbai to Ahmedabad in November 2005. The airline’s fleet consists of 59 aircraft. Of these, 54 aircraft are A320 NEO and 5 aircraft are A320 CEO. Go First operates its flights to 35 destinations. This includes 27 domestic and 8 international destinations. The airline changed its brand name from GoAir to GoFirst in the year 2021.
