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India: Go First cancels all flights till May 12 for operational reasons

Airline's attempt to initiate insolvency proceedings has led to a dispute with its lessors, who requested the aviation regulator to deregister some of its aircraft to reclaim them

Published: Fri 5 May 2023, 10:23 PM

Updated: Fri 5 May 2023, 10:55 PM

  • By
  • ANI

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Indian-based airline Go First cancelled all flights until May 12 due to operational reasons, the airline said in a statement on Friday.

"We regret to inform you that due to operational reasons, Go First flights scheduled till May 12, 2023 have been cancelled. We apologise for the inconvenience caused by the flight cancellations. A full refund will be issued to the original mode of payment shortly. We acknowledge the flight cancellations might have disrupted your travel plans and we are committed to providing all the assistance we can," said the Go First statement.

Earlier, the civil aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), examined the response of Go First and issued an order to the carrier to process their refunds to passengers.

In a statement, DGCA said that Go First has intimated that they have suspended sale of their flights till May 15, 2023 and are working to refund or reschedule for future dates, the passengers already booked to fly with them.

The beleaguered Wadia Group-led airlines, Go First, on Thursday pleaded to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) here for an interim moratorium after facing an acute cash crunch. The airline has also sought direction to appoint an insolvency resolution process (IRP) for the betterment of Go First.

The NCLT, after the hearing, reserved its order on Go Airlines' plea.

According to the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), the effect of such an interim moratorium is that all pending legal proceedings with respect to any 'debt' are deemed to have been stayed.

Crisis-hit Go First had sought various interim directions from the NCLT bench, including restraining lessors from taking back aircraft, and Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) from taking any adverse action against the airline.

The Wadia Group-owned airline has liabilities worth around Rs 11,000 crore.

Go First said that its bank account with the consortium is frozen, and it pleaded to the NCLT Court to defreeze its bank account.

Go First Airlines said that this is not a case of a malicious petition to avoid payment of dues.

According to the petition before the NCLT, the budget airline has sought directions to restrain aircraft lessors from taking any recovery action as well as restrain the DGCA and suppliers of essential goods and services from initiating adverse actions.

Another plea is that the DGCA, Airports Authority of India (AAI), and private airport operators should not cancel any departure and parking slots allotted to the company.

However, aircraft lessors opposed the airline's request, saying that insolvency proceedings cannot be initiated without hearing them.

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