go first. We will stop flights tomorrow and day after at the Bailey, just those two days that going forward and unclear about whether they resume flights immediately. Why? Because of a severe fund shortage. Excuse me. Only 50% of the airline's fleet is operational, as it's not getting spare engines from the US firm. Bratton Whitney is what go first has said following the announcement. The aviation regulator, the D. G C. That's the director general of civil aviation, has sent them a notice for not informing them prior to cancelling all scheduled flights, and they've asked for a reply within 24 hours. The airline airlines have to tell the regulator that they intend to cancel all scheduled flights before doing so. But what Go first has said that they've had to stop flights because of the ever increasing number of failing engines supplied by Pratt and Whitney's International Aero Engines division, which has resulted in go first having to ground 25 aircraft, or 50% of their Airbus A 320 new fleet. But the bottom line is it's an issue of bankruptcy. They've applied for insolvency over here. One hopes that this airline just gets back. But at this stage, I mean, they they've apologised to their creditors in their letter, and they've said that. Look, we don't really have the ability to pay our immediate dues joining us now. Vira Longi, head of operations and company Pervez, the founder of the Mana Airways, and Rau Choudhary, the founder and CEO of which is a travel company. Vina. Is this the end of go, uh, go first? You Thank you for having me on the show, Vishnu. Uh, to be honest, nobody knows the answer to that question. You see, uh, at the outset, one must say it's really unfortunate, mostly for the creditors and most importantly, for the staff. You see, I mean, I'm I'm hearing things that there's There's crews who are stuck overseas now, and, you know, airports are stopping, uh, fuel supplies. And you know, aircraft are not being given permission to land, which is it's hard breaking, you see. I mean, it's not their fault, but I guess it's just it is. It's just the nature of what happens when an airline finds itself in a situation as Goa does. So as it stands. Like you said for three days, flights have been suspended. Uh, mostly. And just to elaborate why this has happened. You see, apart from the engine issue, uh, go and a couple of other airlines have been on something called Cash and Carry since for the for for a couple of Well, for a few quarters now. And what this essentially means is, you know, essential services providers like fuel companies or airport operators don't don't offer you credit and for various reasons and and they expect you to pay as you go. So I mean, one would assume the fact that they've had to suspend operations is probably because they don't have cash in the bank to pay pay, pay. These pay these stakeholders and and and And that, to me, is extremely concerning because, you see, the nature of the aviation business is such that airlines per se sell a service in future and use the money sort of right now to to to get going. So, you know, you can buy a ticket six months, six months out. And you know, the airline pockets the money now and uses it to run its operations. What? This event that has happened today does. Is it sort of, You know, there's a domino effect where people may just stop booking tickets, even post this three day period because, you know, the airline is still selling tickets. So it's It's a Catch 22 situation because of lack of confidence. People may stop booking tickets, and that means they they have no cash coming in. So it's an unfortunate turn of events. Uh, but to go back to your question, it's Nobody really would have an answer as to if this is really the end of the airline. But the man, uh, you know, a key statement in, um uh, from, uh, go first is this In the absence of Pratt and Whitney not providing the required number of spare leased engines in accordance with the order issued by the emergency arbiter arbitrator, go first is no longer in a position to continue to meet its financial obligations. So this is, you know, I mean, they're broke at this stage. They do you do you? Do you see a situation where in the immediate run, they can actually revive themselves. I think once the airline closes down, it's a very uphill task to start it again. Uh, if you see that they were flying previously on 50% capacity. If you fly only 50% of your engines and you are maintaining infrastructure salaries staff for 100% of the aircrafts, that itself is going to ruin you. So when you touch 50% that means you are It's not gonna work. And I believe that engines cannot be the only reason. And Britney is a giant multibillion dollar corporation. They supply engines to everybody all over the world. And why did they break down with, uh, go alone? The talks and the business arrangement I failed to understand. Uh, the other thing. I want to point out to you that if you go through the d g c network uh D g c website there are statistics available for every airline. Now, very surprisingly, go air was doing 17. 21 22 go air did 75.1% load factor better than indigo load factor of 73.5 means at no way was no air falling behind as far as load factors or revenue was concerned. So why this suddenly complete breakdown of the airline? I failed to understand where this didn't happen overnight, where was struggling with engineering spare parts staff in the past. Also, I think now it came to a point where it became absolutely unmanageable. The other thing, that is a great concern to me. Yes, people will, of course, stop booking. Nobody is going to keep booking now. But what happens to the number of passengers who book for the summer months? People who booked holidays done the bookings People who flown to Bangalore or for international destination Bali or wherever they're flying and have to come, they will get stranded. In fact, I just wanted to ask Choudhry that very question since, uh, you know, he runs a major travel company. What happens to those pass firstly, in your understanding Ragu? Is this just the third and the fourth? Or do you? Is this an indefinite flights being, uh, sort of blocked or stopped by Goa? And what is the likely impact on passengers who've already booked? Yeah, good English. Not like it's a very good topic you raised after a couple of few months. Actually, this issues happening since the last few months, not only this month or last month. The this issue from the airlines is happening post pandemic. But certain airlines for international and domestic is happening since long time. And we have raised so many times to the government and the G C and the issues because, as rightly said by you, passengers are the most sufferers lacks of billions of passengers suffers, you know, for certain airlines, uh, for any kind of, uh, within 24 hours so they don't give a time to the passenger. Also, they suddenly send a message that, um uh, your flight is cancelled due to some reasons. And, uh, you may get just refund, refund or alternate option, which, uh, is not a solution. Generally. What happened? Uh uh, as rightly said to you, uh, the tourist, the tourist and the holiday who want to go to the holiday International Don't mistake, like, middle class a class like the the for the sake of that, uh, of saving that few rupees they book earlier. Three months in advance. Six months in. I want some. Some people even book, uh, eight months, nine months, one year. I want the flight tickets and then the rest of the things for holiday but not on the flight. Not only the flight, and they spend a lot of in the and, you know, I mean, what happens to passengers? It is the big issue. Let's see. Could you explain to us? Yeah. Could you explain to us why this has happened? What the issue with Pratt and Whitney is? The reason, I ask, is because as I understand it, Indigo also had problems with this series of engines. They did get engine replacements. How is it that they have overcome their problems? Assuming they have completely and, uh, go first hasn't. Well, you see, the two key differences are indigo has a substantially larger fleet, and and and they too, have a significant number of aircraft grounded across India. I mean, all you have to do is just fly past Terminal one in Delhi and you'll see a couple of them all wrapped up over there. So? So the issues are not just well, at least this engine issue is not particular to only go first and not indigo it it. It's an issue that airlines are facing globally. A lot of airlines that have sort of like, you know, got and Whitney engines and and the other one really being, Uh, sorry. Could you remind me of the other question? I lost my train of thought? No. In fact, uh, the images are actually live images that we were getting from a go first office at, uh I think it's Delhi airport where, you know, I mean, people are asking questions and that their people apparently don't have very many answers at this stage. Or even if they do, we'd like to know what exactly they're telling prospective passengers. No, What I was asking you Vira, is, uh you know, why is it that Indigo has managed to sort out these problems and Pratt and Whitney and go first hasn't As far as these engines are concerned, Yes. Thank you. So And the other thing coming back to what I was saying was indigo switch switched engine. Uh uh. Well, uh, engine providers. So after the last significant engine order, that was, uh, that was sort of, uh uh uh rolled out. And they've engaged c f m instead of, So you see, I mean, they realised this is an ongoing issue, and I mean, indigo go is substantially smaller, and you know, uh, and not being the devil's advocate here. But imagine if you've got like, Mr the Man has said, You see, if you've got 50 aircraft, you've got the staff. You've got to pay the less who you've got the aircraft from. You've got all these people on payroll, but half of your fleet is grounded and and in in fact, for for no fault of your own. Because, you know, the engines, just the engine manufacturer has not been able to sort of fulfil their obligations. And of course, I mean, you know, that is what seems to be the issue. I'm sure there may be other other issues. I mean, at one point in time, go was supposed to go for an IP o and, you know, and and that didn't happen because of covid and various reasons. But coming back to what Mr Choudary was saying, you see, as it stands, Go said on their website that anybody impacted for the next three months, they're going to give them a full refund. Uh, but you see, that might not help somebody who's already down, route or away from home and may have booked a really cheap ticket. And you know, when you when you go to book a last minute ticket, it may be substantially more. And I mean, coming back to passenger rights, et cetera. You see, we have a charter which lays down You know what rights you and I have as a passenger have in case our flight is cancelled or delayed or whatever. But you see, the issue is it's great to have a charter here. You have an airline who suspended operations because of lack of cash flow. So, you know, can you really expect it to have staff, you know, inform you of cancellation or put you on another airline, offer staff even to turn up? I mean, these are it's just unprecedented times. So you don't really know what is going to happen. You see what I mean? No, it is just very briefly, and I hate to be cynical at this stage, but is this not a possibility of Air India picking up trained pilots, trained engineers, a trained, uh, cabin crew. They operate a three twenties. They are looking to massively expand. Is this airline going to lose its people? I agree with you completely. Most of The highly trained staff will immediately get jobs, but there will be still a lot of non-technical people who will be left behind. Airport staff check in staff so people will end up losing jobs. People will end up losing livelihoods. Suppose a deputy manager has been working for 20 years or 15 years at the airport. For a company be able to get a job. See, there's always huge demand for qualified engineers. Qualified pilots, qualified senior copilots, some aero scissors, but usually a lot of ground staff. Palco stuff is left behind so people will end up losing jobs. And I'll tell you something. This affects the aviation industry as a whole. Internationally, India was doing exceedingly well internationally. Everybody has accepted that India is the fastest growing market in the world. We were already at number three chasing to number two, and suddenly this kind of fallout affects everybody, and it makes everybody look bad. Leasing companies will have great difficulty taking the aircraft back. There will be a lot of litigation, lawsuits, attachments, whatever assets are left. Everybody will try and attach those assets. I'm sure they'll be pending use of airport authority. Indian oil fuel companies, engineering companies. It's gonna be a better system becomes bad. And the important point is the government was actually helping them with some emergency funding as well, which is what the government has announced today. Despite that, they couldn't sort of, you know, get their act together. It's sad, and perhaps the reasons are very valid. But I think as we talk about the great growth story of Indian aviation, we have had airlines which have not done well and have collapsed. And that is a sad reality. I'd like to thank you all very much for being with us out of time on this programme from all of us. Here. Good night. Thank you.
