Eighteen months ago, Go First went into a voluntary bankruptcy proceeding, blaming Pratt & Whitney’s inability to provide functional GTF engines for its inability to operate an airline. The hope behind the process was to cut their ‘losses’, with the Wadia Group buying back everything after cutting the losses and returning to operations.
However, that process did not exactly go according to plan, and eventually, the aircraft they sort of grabbed and held back were released from their possession. Now, the airline has a name and some slots to speak of, but no employees or aircraft.
Go First’s unsuccessful resolution process.
The airline had many people bidding for it, but given we haven’t seen the resolution of the Jet Airways process so far, I wasn’t surprised that there were far too many i’s to dot and too many t’s to cross this time. Eventually, the last bidders in the many extended rounds of bidding were a consortium of Ajay Singh of SpiceJet fame, EaseMyTrip founder Nishant Pitti, and UAE-based SkyOne on the other side. Once the aircraft were deemed to be not the property of the airline, Ajay Singh/Nishant Pitti withdrew from the bidding and then the whole process fell apart like a pack of cards.
Now, Business Standard is reporting that the airline’s committee of creditors (CoC) has voted for the company to be liquidated, to extract whatever residual value they can. The National Company Law Tribunal repeatedly extended the insolvency process, and the last date for it to be closed was August 3, 2024.
However, given there was no outcome and the bids were not considered good enough by the CoC, the CoC has concluded voting to recommend the liquidation of the airline, per the newspaper. If reports are to be believed, land parcels back some of the loans that were raised for Go First, and these land parcels will actually cause some good money to be returned to the banks.
This would be the sad end of yet another carrier in India, one that used to operate as a discount carrier and had the potential to become a leisure carrier or a ULCC.
Bottomline
By many accounts, seems the fate of Go First is sealed, and the airline is going to be heading for liquidation pretty soon. The airline’s lenders have reportedly voted for the airline to be liquidated and this recommendation will be passed on the National Company Law Tribunal shortly. Go well, Go First.
What do you make of the fate of Go First?
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