Bankrupt regional airline to go into liquidation

While 2025 is only a few weeks underway, there have already been a number of airlines either declaring or working through bankruptcies (aviation is an industry that is notoriously risky and costly to break into).

The most well-known low-cost carrier currently looking for Chapter 11 protection is undoubtedly Spirit Airlines (SAVE) but fellow Florida budget airline Silver Airways also filed for bankruptcy during the final week or 2024. On January 14, Texas-based travel agency Mondee Holdings (MOND) filed for bankruptcy.

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Over in the Indian subcontinent, Go Airlines the company behind the low-cost Go First airline, failed to meet an August deadline set by a local bankruptcy court to find a buyer to help take on its debt of 65.21 billion rupees (roughly $781.14 million USD).

While the Committee of Creditors representing the defunct airline had already unanimously voted to liquidate the airline back in August, Go Airlines was stalling for time in a last-ditch effort for a Hail Mary. On Jan. 20, India's National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) ordered it to begin liquidation upon requests from several creditors to which Go Airlines owed money.

One of the bankers on the Committee of Creditors anonymously told Indian media that it made "makes no sense to keep pumping in more money" into the airline.

India's Go Airlines, the parent company of Go First, filed for bankruptcy.
Bloomberg/Getty Images

'Bidders were given adequate time to review and raise their bids'

"Bidders were given adequate time to review and raise their bids, but even that fell short of lenders' expectations," he said further. Founded in 2005 and operating a fleet of exclusively Airbus A320 (EADSF) aircraft, Go First quickly found a market running flights between different Indian cities as well as nearby countries popular with Indian tourists like Thailand and the United Arab Emirates.

While the airline went through a period of rapid growth in the 2010s, it was never able to recover from the debt accrued during the COVID-19 travel stall as well as the flights affected during the Pratt & Whitney engine recall over the last two years (as a single aircraft airline, Go First was especially affected). The airline first filed for bankruptcy in May 2023 and had not flown since.

Executives reportedly held talks with prospective buyers including Indian low-cost airline SpiceJet founder Ajay Singh and Indian online travel booking platform EaseMyTrip founder Nishant Pitti but both were ultimately scared off by the high debt load of 65.21 billion rupees.

More bankruptcy:

In November 2024, the Supreme Court of India has also ordered the liquidation of another low-cost carrier named Jet Airways (India) Limited after five years in which the Delhi-based airline did not run flights but refused to liquidate as it held on to hopes of finding an investor.

Liquidation could be legally delayed because an alliance of British and United Arab Emirates businesses named Jalan Kalrock Consortium initially committed to putting 3.50 billion rupees ($41.5 million USD) toward the airline. When the promises were not followed through upon, a three-judge bench on India's Supreme Court ruled that the airline's turnaround plan was "no longer capable of implementation" and liquidation was the only viable alternative to recoup at least some of the losses incurred by creditors.

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