Go First's airport slots may be up for grabs for rivals soon

The Centre plans to set up a committee to redistribute these slots in a transparent manner, allowing other carriers to efficiently manage their operations on congested routes and airports, said two people aware of the development on the condition of anonymity.

“...it gives a chance to other airlines, even regional ones, to strengthen their operations," said one of the senior government officials cited above on the condition of anonymity.

GoFirst had 330 daily flights across 36 destinations before it suspended operations in May 2023 due to financial difficulties. The airline's network included 27 domestic and 9 international destinations.

Airport slots, granting a carrier the permission to use the necessary infrastructure to operate flights, are valuable in the world's third-largest aviation market—after the US and China—as a growing economy has increased demand for air travel.

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Go First’s lenders await the court's approval for the liquidation of its assets. Releasing the carrier’s slots will ease operations at so-called level 3 airports that face high congestion due to limited capacity. Level 1 airports have adequate capacity at all times, while level 2 experience occasional congestion.

The committee to reallocate the slots will be headed by the Airports Authority of India's (AAI) executive director of operations, the people quoted earlier said. Its members will include representatives from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), airlines and defence authorities.

“The committee formation is expected to happen soon. As the liquidation process of Go First nears legal approval, the timely reallocation of its slots will enable other airlines to operate flights on those routes, reducing traffic congestion and improving connectivity," said the second official on the condition of anonymity.

Previously, after Jet Airways was grounded in 2019, its 810 airport slots were distributed among its peers. IndiGo and SpiceJet acquired 130 each, Vistara (operational as a separate entity then) secured 110, now-grounded Go First received 56, Air Asia got 42, and Air India was given 24 slots.

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Queries emailed to spokespersons of the civil aviation ministry, AAI, DGCA, BCAS, Go First, IndiGo and Akasa Air on Thursday remained unanswered.

India has been seeing a consistent rise in the number of flyers. According to data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the number of domestic flyers has spiked from 49.3 million in 2020 to over 132 million in 2024.

Ratings agency Icra expects India's domestic air passenger traffic to grow 7-10% to about 164-170 million in 2024-25. The market, however, has become a duopoly, with IndiGo and Air India being the major players.

Mint reported in November that the Centre was working on a mega aviation package to bolster India's civil aviation sector by providing airlines with various benefits, including tax concessions, reduced user charges, route optimization, and regulatory relaxations.

Go First, formerly known as GoAir, primarily operated on key domestic routes such as Delhi-Mumbai, Bengaluru-Chennai and Kolkata-Hyderabad. It was grounded in May 2023 after it filed for bankruptcy, citing delays in securing aircraft engines from American manufacturer Pratt & Whitney. 

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The airline owes its creditors ₹6,200 crore, with major claims from the Central Bank of India ( ₹1,934 crore), Bank of Baroda ( ₹1,744 crore), and IDBI Bank ( ₹75 crore).

GoFirst is engaged in arbitration worth $1 billion against Pratt & Whitney in Singapore. The airline's creditors are looking to finance this dispute resolution as it could be the airline's last significant asset—if it gets a favourable award.

In April 2024, GoFirst took another hit when the Delhi high court ordered all 54 of its planes to be deregistered and reclaimed by lessors.