India’s DGCA starts to deregister 54 aircraft belonging to bankrupt GoFirst Airways

Nearly a year after declaring insolvency, Go First lessors have finally gotten justice. The airline did not own its planes but rather had them on rent (lease). Before its moratorium kicked in, the airline had been served notices for most of the aircraft under a method called IDERA (Irrevocable Deregistration and Export Request Authorization), which, when served to the DGCA, allows for the actual owner of the aircraft (the lessor), to take back their aircraft from the airline.

Delhi High Court orders deregistration of GoFirst Aircraft

Somehow, the insolvency resolution professional appointed to keep the lights on at GoFirst thought it was a good idea to contest the decision and wanted to keep the planes under their possession, because they thought they were coming back up in the air very soon. Needless to say, the lessors (Accipiter, Bluesky 31, EOS Aviation, Pembroke Aircraft Leasing, SMBC Aviation Capital, DAE, SFV Aircraft Holdings, ACG Aircraft Leasing, BOC Aviation, Jackson Square Aviation, Star Rising Aviation and others ) went to court and fought over the issue. The lessors were only allowed occasional inspections of their grounded planes. After many hearings, on April 26, 2024, it was pronounced by the Delhi High Court that the 54 aircraft, owners of which sued the Union of India or the DGCA, India, should be deregistered by the DGCA (India’s aviation regulator), within five working days.

In the meantime, these aircraft rotted away at airports across the country, because the Go First RP did not have the money or the resources or the will to keep those aircraft in maintenance.

Here is how many aircraft were parked across the country:

Delhi: 23
Mumbai: 9
Bengaluru: 9
Kannur: 5
Nagpur: 3
Hyderabad: 2
Kochi / Ahmedabad / Goa Mopa: 1

The DGCA finally started the deregistration of Go First aircraft

While there are reports that the DGCA has deregistered all 54 aircraft that were under contest by both sides, at the moment there are 9 official notices of deregistration on the DGCA website. More should come soon. The following are the aircraft which are being hosted on the DGCA website:

VT-WJN
VT-WJP
VT-WJR
VT-WJJ
VT-WJQ
VT-WJM
VT-WJT
VT-WJS
VT-WJL

What next for these aircraft?

Just like when Jet Airways went under, airlines such as Vistara and SpiceJet took over those aircraft without these aircraft being exported from India again, both airlines IndiGo and Air India are trying to get a deal on at least 15 of these aircraft into their fold to expand their fleets. Remember, IndiGo has its aircraft grounded as well because of the Pratt & Whitney GTF Engine issues.

Bottomline

After a long legal battle, 54 of the 70+ aircraft that were held on to by GoFirst while they should have been let go a year ago, are finally being deregistered. These aircraft can now be fixed up and handed over to other airlines, while the aviation business sees an amazing amount of growth in India and around the world. Whether they go to an Indian carrier or one abroad remains to be seen.

What do you think of GoFirst aircraft being finally deregistered?

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Comments

Wilfred Robin says:

May 5, 2024 at 9:47 am

Fair decision. As an aviation enthusiast it might be sad to see another airline biting the dust. But like in the case of Jet Airways, by ditching an airline into insolvency the original promoters might have been trying to launder money of lenders and due salary of its staff. Hope time will reveal the details behind the GoFirst.

India’s DGCA starts to deregister 54 aircraft belonging to bankrupt GoFirst Airways

Delhi High Court orders deregistration of GoFirst Aircraft