File Refund Claims Before Resolution Professional; NCLT Delhi Tells Go First Passengers
The National Company Law Tribunal (“NCLT”) has issued Advisory dated 03.07.2023 in reference to the refund claims of the passengers of Go-Air. The Advisory states that the passengers of Go Air have been contacting the NCLT officials for seeking refund of their booked/cancelled tickets of Go Air airlines. The NCLT has informed the ticket holders (passengers) that Mr....
The National Company Law Tribunal (“NCLT”) has issued Advisory dated 03.07.2023 in reference to the refund claims of the passengers of Go-Air. The Advisory states that the passengers of Go Air have been contacting the NCLT officials for seeking refund of their booked/cancelled tickets of Go Air airlines.
The NCLT has informed the ticket holders (passengers) that Mr. Shailendra Ajmera has been appointed as the Resolution Professional of Go Air (India) Ltd., which has been admitted into Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (“CIRP”) under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (“IBC”).
The Passengers have been requested to submit their claims with the Resolution Professional and to not call the NCLT officials for refund of booked/cancelled tickets. The Advisory also contains the contact details of the Resolution Professional and the manner in which claims have to be submitted.
Brief Background
M/s Go Airlines (India) Limited (“Go Air/Corporate Debtor”) is engaged in the business of Airlines and is the third largest airline operator in India. It has been running a low-cost Airline service under the brand name ‘Go Air’ for the past 17 years and holds license issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for carrying out commercial air operations in India. In May 2021, GoAir was renamed as ‘GoFirst’.
Pratt & Whitney (“P&W”) had supplied defective engines to Go Air due to which the latter’s several aircrafts were grounded and could not take off. P&W declined to provide any repair or replacement. The matter was referred to an emergency arbitration before the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC), wherein the Emergency Arbitrator passed Awards dated 03.02.2023 and 15.04.2023, directing P&W to supply 10 serviceable engines by 27.04.2023 and 10 serviceable engines each month till December 2023. However, the Awards were not complied with by P&W and enforcement proceedings are pending adjudication.
For this reason, Go Air was constrained to cancel 4,118 flights with 77,500 passengers in a span of thirty days. Therefore, Go Air filed a petition under Section 10 of IBC, voluntarily seeking initiation of the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (“CIRP”) against itself.
On 10.05.2023, the NCLT admitted the petition under Section 10 of IBC and initiated CIRP against the Corporate Debtor. Mr. Shailendra Ajmera has been appointed as the Resolution Professional.
File No. 25/02/2023-NCLT