In a major relief for Go First, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has given green signal to resume operations after carrying out a multi-location audit earlier this month following a plan to start services submitted by the insolvency resolution professional. The airline can resume operations based on the availability of interim funding and approval of flight schedule by DGCA.
DGCA has approved Go First's plan to restart operations with 15 aircraft and 114 daily flights, subject to certain conditions.
Although the timing for relaunch is unclear as of now, Go First will create history as the first Indian airline to take to skies after filing for insvency.
In a letter addressed to Go First’s resolution professional (RP) Shailendra Ajmera, DGCA said: “The resumption plan has been accepted subject to proceedings and/or outcomes of writ petitions and applications by aircraft lessors pending before the Delhi High Court and the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), and the ongoing corporate insolvency resolution process at NCLT.”
The acceptance of the resumption plan by the DGCA takes the airline one step closer to restarting operations.
“RP shall submit the proposed flight schedule, commensurate with the available resources in terms of airworthy aircraft, qualified pilots, cabin crew, AMEs (aircraft maintenance engineers), flight dispatchers, etc, for consideration of DGCA after making requisite arrangements for commencement of scheduled flight operations, including the interim funding required for resumption of operations,” the DGCA said, adding that the airline can resume flight operations only once the DGCA approves the flight schedule.
Other conditions listed include ensuring compliance with all applicable regulatory requirements, continued airworthiness of the aircraft to be used for operations, and subjecting every plane to a satisfactory handling flight before deploying it for flight operations.
On June 28, Ajmera had presented a flight resumption plan to the DGCA, following an interim funding approval by Go First’s lenders. The Committee of Creditors (CoC) of the embattled airline had given an in-principal approval to an interim funding of INR 4.5bn.
The DGCA then conducted a special audit of Go First facilities at Delhi and Mumbai from July 4 to 6. Following the audit, the DGCA made a number of observations and inferred that the airline does not have the adequate operational staff to operate the proposed number of flights.
Based on the DGCA’s observations, the airline finalised flight resumption plan to 15 aircraft and 114 daily flights
The airline had operated about 25 aircraft in early May, when it decided to suspend services and seek voluntary bankruptcy. However, some questions remain unanswered like what happens to the court case involving lessors wanting their planes back? What happens to the money that the airline owes travel agents and passengers?
In case the Go First lessors don’t come to an agreement, the airline can opt for wet lease capacity to give ample confidence to lessors, travel agents as well as passengers.
At 114 flights a day, Go First will be operating less than 1% of all domestic flights and will be smaller than Akasa Air or SpiceJet.
The main challenge before the airline post relaunch would be cost management. The airline currently has to manage funds to lessors as well as pay parking charges for the grounded aircraft. Out of 50 planes in airline fleet, 15 of them are A320ceos which are operational.