Passengers near the ticket office of GoFirst Airlines at Birsa Munda Airport in Ranchi. The airline has filed for bankruptcy. file | Photo Credit: PTI
The aviation safety regulator ordered GoFirst to stop selling air tickets immediately on 8 May, and also served it a show cause notice before deciding to cancel the airline’s permit to offer commercial flights.
“GoFirst has been directed to stop booking and selling tickets directly or indirectly with immediate effect and until further orders,” the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said in a press statement.
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Additionally, the DGCA has issued a show-cause notice to the airline “for their failure to continue operating the service in a safe, efficient and reliable manner”. It has asked GoFirst to respond within 15 days and added that “further decision on continuation of their Air Operators Certificate (AOC) will be taken based on the response”.
Earlier, the airline had announced the cancellation of flights in a phased manner. First, on May 2 it suddenly announced Cancellation of flights for a period of three days May 3 to May 5, Which was later extended till May 9. Later, it extended the cancellation till May 12.
the airline is also waiting National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) order on that An interim moratorium on the bankruptcy petition and the safety of its aircraft From repossession by the lessees for non-payment of dues. The airline has 28 of its 54 aircraft with what the airline called under-performing engines, due to delays in providing parts and servicing by engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney. It has said that this has caused a loss of more than Rs 10,000 crore to the airline. The airline owes a total of Rs 11,463 to its various creditors.
At least 77,000 passengers were affected after the airline canceled 4,118 flights over a period of 30 days till 6 May. The airline also informed the courts that a total of 19 lakh passengers were booked for travel on future dates. Airline CEO Kaushik Khona told Hindu that the total value of refunds for passengers who booked directly through the airline was “Rs 30-40 lakh”. But it is estimated that the amount owed to travel agents and booking portals could be double this. They have demanded that the airline should issue refunds in cash instead of credit notes to enable them to address customer complaints.