Go First may be seen flying again, bid worth Rs 1600 crore for bankrupt airline

The days of the country's bankrupt budget airline Go First may soon change. Two financial bids have been received as part of its bankruptcy process. According to news agency Reuters, this information was given by two bankers who participated in the meeting of the airline's lenders.

Bankers said that Ajay Singh, Managing Director of budget airline SpiceJet and Busy Bee Airways have together submitted a bid of Rs 1600 crore for Go First. Of this, Rs 1,000 crore is for acquisition of Go First, while Rs 600 crore will be invested to restart its services.

However, in this regard, Nishant Pitti, the majority shareholder of Busy Bee Airways, says that his bid to start the airline is confidential. The Committee of Creditors (CoC) will keep their bid confidential until the successful bidder is announced.

A financial bid for Go First was also received from Sharjah-based Sky One Airways. It was not known how much Sky One had bid to revive Go First. However, the banker said that Sky One's bid was lower than the competing bids. He said work on the bids is expected to be completed by next month.

Go First services have been halted since May last year. The airline also filed for bankruptcy at the same time. Central Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, IDBI Bank and Deutsche Bank are its creditors, the airline said in its bankruptcy filing. He owes the airline a total of Rs 65.21 billion.

What is the history of Go First?

Go First started as GoAir. This airline is owned by Wadia Group, which had entered the aviation sector in the year 2005. As of October 2017, Go First was performing quite well. It was the fifth largest airline in the country with 8.4 percent market share. But then its bad phase came. It had to ground its planes in July 2022 and shut down entire operations in May last year.