NEW DELHI, May 4: Spelling more trouble for the Wadia Group –owned Go First Airlines, lessors of 20 aircraft to the bankrupt airlines have asked the aviation regulator the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to deregister and return them.
The DGCA has published the details of the lessors and their request on its website. This development marks a turn for the worse for the Go First that filed for insolvency with the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).
The airline in a statement on Tuesday while announcing the grounding of all flights had said it intends to return to the air soon once their problems are solved, specifically the matter of leased spare engines from US firm Pratt & Whitney.
Go First has alleged the US firm did not keep its word on supplying the engines, which forced the airline to ground 50 per cent of its Airbus A320neo fleet and subsequently, all operations. But the lessors asking Go First to return the 20 aircraft is likely to deepen the crisis and push Go First into a bankruptcy trench from where climbing out would be extremely challenging or even impossible.
The Airlines has already cancelled all flights for the next four days and is likely to keep extending the cancelations further.
(Manas Dasgupta)
