Go First Insolvency Severely Impacts Airfare, Flight Ticket Prices Soar Upto 50 Percent On Airline's Routes

The application of insolvency proceedings by Go First to NCLT has caused a domino effect in the India's airline industry. Not only is the Go First's flight cancellation has caused problems to the travellers who have booked tickets with the airline, it has also caused trouble for the airline's staff who are now looking for jobs and applying with other airlines. On the top of all this, the airfares are soaring on the routes, where Go First operated its flights. A quick search on third party travel websites reveals that the flight ticket prices have increased by up to 50 percent on certain routes. 

Go First was operating 200 flights a day, on some of the busiest routes, and was among the top 5 airline's in India, just behind IndiGo and Tata group-backed airlines Air India, and Vistara. With the airline cancelling all its flights till May 12, and stopping bookings altogether till the month's end, the airfare on such routes has risen exponentially. There's no update from the DGCA to put a cap on the rising ticket prices. 

The Delhi-Leh airfare, as seen on travel website MakeMyTrip is going upto Rs 38000 for a round trip journey, if you are planning to travel later this month. The route was served by Go First, which was among a handful of airlines to operate a flight on this sector. Historically, the sector has an airfare of Rs 20,000-Rs 25,000 if booked at least 7 days in advance. 

As per the DGCA's data, the airline was operating at 90 percent occupancy till it cancelled all the flights, serving more than 35 destinations via a fleet of 25 aircrafts, as the rest of its planes was grounded due to supply issue from P&W. 

These passengers are now looking at alternative options, however, almost all airlines are operating with a 90 percent load factor. This means airlines have limited or no seats to offer to this additional load of Go First customers. More than that, the Indian airline industry has already breached its peak domestic passenger post Covid-19. 

With such high demand and limited seats, the airlines are charging higher than usual on certain sectors, more prominently those, where Go First served extensively. As per the industry experts, with lessors asking their planes back and P&W not supplying engines anytime soon, the Go First crisis is here to stay for a long time. 

Some even believe that this is the demise of the brand, as we know it, with Go First becoming one of the major airlines after Jet Airways to take a fall in the last couple of years.