Govt bailout of Go First unlikely unless engine issue resolved: Dy Minister

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NEW DELHI (Reuters) – An Indian government bailout of cash-strapped Go Airlines (India) Ltd. is unlikely unless something is done about the supply of the airline, which sought protection from bankruptcy last week, a minister said.

The low-cost carrier, widely known as Go First and which until recently was India’s fourth-largest airline by air passenger, has filed for bankruptcy protection, blaming “faulty” Pratt & Whitney engines for grounding about half of its planes. The 54 Airbus A320neos.

The Deputy Minister of Aviation, F. K. Singh said the government had offered help to US-based Pratt & Whitney.

“The problem with Go Air is that their flights are powered by Pratt & Whitney engines which have been having management issues since post-COVID-19…so (engine) manufacturing is not happening as fast as it should be,” Singh said. ANI news agency on Monday.

“What can be done about the bailout? Where will Pratt & Whitney get (the engines) from? A bailout can only happen when something can be done about it,” Singh said when asked about the possibility of a government bailout.

Pratt & Whitney, part of Raytheon Technologies, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the minister’s out-of-hours remarks. It previously told an arbitrator that the airline’s claim that engine failure caused its demise was “staggering” and without evidence.

Go First, which has been flying for nearly two decades, is the first major Indian airline to go bankrupt since 2019, when Jet Airways fell.

The fate of the loss-making airline highlights fierce competition in a sector dominated by IndiGo and the recent merger of Air India and Vistara under the Tata conglomerate, even though India’s growing airline industry has picked up again after the coronavirus pandemic and reached record passenger levels.

Go First on Monday called on the Companies Law Court to swiftly approve its application for bankruptcy protection, as more lessors sought to take back planes and the aviation regulator told the airline to stop selling new tickets.

On Monday, the airline said it has stopped issuing new tickets.


 

(Reporting by Shivam Patel in New Delhi; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

(Only the title and image for this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard team; the rest of the content is generated automatically from a shared feed.)