Indian low-cost airline Go First Airways had to file for bankruptcy proceedings at the National Company Law Tribunal in Delhi earlier this week. Flight operations have already been discontinued, according to company boss Kaushik Khona in a statement.

With a market share of around eight percent, the carrier, formerly known as Go Air, was one of the larger providers on the subcontinent. It was previously the fifth-largest carrier and was given the best ratings by experts in terms of expansion opportunities. However, according to their own statements, they had massive problems in the area of ​​the Pratt & Whitney engines, which are used on the entire Airbus fleet.

In the bankruptcy application, Go First writes, among other things, that they had to fight to keep the fleet in the air due to reliability problems. Despite intensive efforts, there would have been no improvement. Even the opposite is said to be the case, because the problems with the PW engines are said to have worsened. In addition, there were delays in the delivery of required exchange drives, because you sometimes had to wait weeks for them. Until then, the affected machines would not have been operational. Go First puts the proportion of aircraft affected by problems with the PW engines at 50 percent of the fleet.

In the filing, the airline also expressed dissatisfaction with the US company's alleged inability to supply parts and spares or repair the offending engines within a reasonable time. Go First also agreed to resume flight operations in August or September 2023 if Pratt & Whitney could repair the affected engines. The Indian low-cost airline had already announced a lawsuit against the US company in March 2023.

The fleet of the low-coster last consisted of 61 Airbus A320 series aircraft. According to their own statements, they only used PW engines. The bankruptcy of the Indian low-cost airline is quite problematic for the European manufacturer, because in 2016 it had ordered 144 machines. These have not yet been fully delivered.