Government Unlikely To Provide Bailout To Go First Without Addressing Engine Supply Issue, Minister

The Indian government is unlikely to provide a bailout to financially struggling Go Airlines (India) Ltd unless the issue of engine supply is addressed, a minister said. The low-cost carrier, also known as Go First and previously India's fourth-largest airline by passenger volume, recently filed for bankruptcy protection. The airline attributes the grounding of approximately half of its 54 Airbus A320neos to "faulty" Pratt & Whitney engines.

The government has helped Pratt & Whitney, a company based in the United States, according to deputy aviation minister V.K. Singh.

"The problem with Go Air is that their flights are run on engines of Pratt & Whitney which is facing management issues since after COVID-19 ... So (engine) manufacturing is not happening at the pace that it should have," Singh told news agency ANI on Monday.

"What can be done about a bailout? Where will Pratt & Whitney get (engines)? Bailout can only happen when something can be done about this," Singh said in response to a question about the possibility of a government bailout.

Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies, was unresponsive to a request for comment on the minister's statements outside of business hours. The company had previously stated to an arbitrator that the airline's assertion of faulty engines being the cause of its downfall was baseless and "astounding."

Go First, which has been operating for almost 20 years, is the first significant Indian airline to go out of business since Jet Airways did so in 2019.

Despite the fact that IndiGo dominates the market and that Air India and Vistara recently merged under the Tata conglomerate, the destiny of the loss-making airline highlights the intense rivalry in the sector. This is true even if India's expanding aviation industry recovered from the coronavirus pandemic and attracted record numbers of passengers.
Go First on Monday urged the company law tribunal to promptly approve its plea for bankruptcy protection, as additional lessors attempted to repossess its planes, and the aviation regulator directed the carrier to cease selling new tickets. As a result, the airline announced that it has halted the issuance of new tickets.