Go First crisis: A boon for rivals

Air India, IndiGo, and Vistara have increased their flight frequencies to fill the gap left by Go First's cancellations. Go First's voluntary insolvency proceedings in May left a vacuum during the peak summer travel season. 

The Indian government assigned Go First's arrival and departure slots to the remaining airlines as an interim measure to minimize fare increases and prevent airport losses. The slots will revert to Go First once they restart their flights, in keeping with the National Company Law Tribunal's order. Carriers have increased their frequencies to minimise capacity, airfare and frequency disruptions.

Airlines including Air India and IndiGo have started new flights to fill the vacuum left by cash-strapped Go First's cancellation of flights at the peak of summer travel season. 

Air India has increased frequency on routes such as Delhi-Srinagar and Delhi-Leh. IndiGo has launched flights connecting the two cities from Mumbai. Vistara has hiked Delhi-Mumbai flight frequency.

Go First primarily had a high frequency on leisure destinations such as Goa, Leh, and Srinagar. Citing Cirium data, ET mentioned that Go Air was supposed to operate 199 flights from Delhi to Srinagar, 182 flights on the Delhi-Leh route, and 156 flights from Mumbai to Goa this summer. However, due to the financial crisis, Go Air flights have become inoperational for more than 20 days.

The Wadia Group airline voluntarily filed for insolvency resolution on 2 May and suspended operations, citing persistent technical issues with the Pratt & Whitney engines that power its 49 Airbus A320neo aircraft out of the total fleet of 54 aircraft. The airline said that the delivery of defective engines and the delay in repairing unserviceable engines caused a setback of ₹10,800 crore for the airline.

Go First has extended flight cancellation till 23 May citing operational reasons. Earlier, the cancellations were till May 12.

-B