Go First will not challenge the Delhi High Court order that told the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to deregister all its 54 aircraft by Friday (May 3), and is heading towards liquidation, people in the know told Business Standard.

Lenders told the newspaper the only option that remained was liquidation. They said they would lose money when the airline was liquidated since the value of its assets had gone down due to prolonged litigation.

“The resolution plan was submitted to revive the airline. The bids were submitted because they saw it as a going concern. With the aircraft deregistered, we are not sure whether it will remain one. Without the aircraft there are only slots available. There is not much value,” said an official of a bank that has an exposure to Go First.

The DGCA deregistered all 54 aircraft leased to the now bankrupt airline Go First on Wednesday in the wake of an order issued by the Delhi High Court on April 26. Advocate Diwakar Maheshwari, appearing for the Resolution Professional of the airline, had asked the court to keep the order in abeyance but the court refused to do so.

This seems to signal the end of the road for the low-budget carrier, which launched commercial flights in November 2005, a mere 10 months before IndiGo did so. However, IndiGo has emerged as India’s largest airline, commanding approximately a 60 per cent share of the domestic passenger market. With a fleet of around 370 planes, IndiGo is the world’s third-most valuable airline by market capitalisation.

Go First joins the ranks of major carriers such as Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways, which went to the wall in 2012 and 2019, respectively, underscoring the challenges inherent in navigating India’s aviation industry.

A lessor said many repossessed planes had missing engines and they were finding it difficult to get them because there was a shortage of Pratt and Whitney engines.

He also said since the aircraft were in a poor state, it was difficult for them to bring them back to their flying condition.

Earlier lessors had told the court there were “greenish deposits” and “rust” on the grounded planes. The court had said the photos given by the lessors of the planes “spoke for itself”.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the LatestLaws staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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