India's GoAir mulls order for 200 narrow- and 20 wide-bodies

No legacy slots for India's Jet Airways - ministry

The Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has reaffirmed earlier statements and told the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in an affidavit that reactivated Jet Airways (JAI, Mumbai Int'l) will not regain slots that predate its 2019 collapse and that it will have to reapply on general terms for new ones.

"The RA [resolution applicant] can’t claim these slots as a matter of right under the present insolvency proceedings... The RA can’t claim historicity on the slots which were allotted to them for winter 2018 and summer 2019 season, as they failed to utilise 80% of the slots allotted to them and stopped their operation even before commencement of these insolvency proceedings," the ministry argued.

The airline suspended all operations in April 2019, shortly after the beginning of the Summer 2019 season. However, as its financial problems had dragged on for months before that date, Jet Airways had already begun to prune its network significantly during the Winter 2018/19 season, leading to the underutilisation of most of its allocated slots. Following the suspension of operations, the...

India’s Go First mulls suit against Go Holdings over brands

Go First (G8, Mumbai Int'l) may pursue legal proceedings against Jeh Wadia, the airline’s former managing director who stepped down in March, over a tussle for the registration of trademarks associated with the company.

GoAir (G8, Mumbai Int'l) announced two weeks ago that it was rebranding itself as Go First and adopting an ultra-low-cost model. It is now considering turning to the courts to solidify its ownership of all the trademarks and domain names used by the company, the Hindu Business Line newspaper reported.

Jeh, the younger son of Wadia Group conglomerate patriarch Nusli Wadia, had headed GoAir since its inception in 2005. Go Holdings, in which Jeh holds a 99% stake, made two applications to the Registrar of Trade Marks in March for the registration of the brands ‘Go Airlines’ and ‘www.goair.in’. In April, he applied to the National Internet Exchange of India to transfer 115 Go-associated domain names from one domain registrar, Net4India Ltd, to another, Network Solutions.

The airline mentioned the dispute under “risk factors” in its draft...

India’s GoAir rebrands, shifts to ULCC model

As it prepares for its Initial Public Offering (IPO), GoAir (G8, Mumbai Int'l) has taken the step of shifting to what it called an ultra-low-cost model while rebranding itself as Go First (G8, Mumbai Int'l), the company announced on May 13.

The carrier said it was “transitioning all its operations under this new brand,” aimed at younger travellers, as it prepared for its “next phase of growth.”

“India is a fast-developing airline market. Consumers in India are hugely value conscious but are quite demanding when it comes to the flying experience,” the company’s vice chairman and former Spirit Airlines (NK, Fort Lauderdale Int'l) CEO Ben Baldanza explained.

The following day, on May 14 - a month later than planned - the Wadia Group-owned carrier filed its draft red herring prospectus, or offer document, ahead of the planned IPO, which will be managed by ICICI Securities, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley. According to the prospectus, it wants to raise INR3.6 billion rupees (USD49 million) via a fresh issue of shares.

The...

India restricts airlines to 80% capacity until end mid-2Q21

India’s domestic airlines may continue to operate 80% of their 2020 summer domestic schedules until May 31, 2021, according to a directive issued by the country’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on April 26, 2021.

This allows for a total of 18,843 departures per week by 11 airlines from 108 airports, the DGCA said in a separate circular.

A breakdown of weekly departures for the summer schedule 2021, taken as per 80% of summer 2020 and provided by the DGCA, showed that IndiGo Airlines would have the highest weekly departures of 8,749; followed by SpiceJet with 2,854 departures; GoAir operating 1,747 departures; Air India coming in with 1,683 departures; Vistara with 1,288; AirAsia India with 1,243; Alliance Air (India) with 742; TruJet with 344; Star Air (India) with 115; flybig with 54: and Pawan Hans Helicopters with 24 departures per week.

The DGCA restricted airlines to operate only up to 33% of their pre-COVID-19 schedule from May 2020 when scheduled domestic passenger services resumed. It...