Go First fails to take off, NCLT orders liquidation

Creditors await dues as airline's 20-month-long insolvency process ends

- Krishna Yadav & Daanish Anand

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) ordered the liquidation of debt-laden Go First on Monday, bringing to an end a 20-month-long insolvency process after the grounded budget carrier failed to get any viable resolution plan.

Go First, which had initiated a voluntary insolvency resolution process in May 2023, had a 6.9% share in India's domestic aviation market. However, its assets were effectively wiped out and revival became a distant possibility after the Delhi High Court allowed the budget airline's lessors to repossess its fleet of 54 planes.

The airline owes around ₹6,200 crore to creditors, with significant claims from Central Bank of India (₹1,934 crore), Bank of Baroda (₹1,744 crore), and IDBI Bank (₹75 crore), besides claims from vendors and travel agents. Liquidation is the process of shutting down a business or a company and selling its assets to pay its creditors and shareholders in order of priority.