Go First CEO addresses anxious staff, passengers stranded in India, abroad 

NEW DELHI:  Passengers and employees of GoFirst are left stranded at different locations across India and abroad as the low-cost carrier cancelled all flights for 3 days (May 3-5) and filed for voluntary insolvency.

Moreover, to calm the nerves of over 5,000 anxious employees, Go First’s CEO Kaushik Khona on Tuesday told them that the company is concerned about their future and will take “utmost care” of them.“We want to reassure you that we are doing everything possible to navigate this situation with the utmost care and concern for all employees,” said Khona.

Two employees of Go First this newspaper spoke to said that they have no clue about the airline’s course of action after May 5. “This is a big setback for us. We fear that we may lose our jobs if the airline shuts operations for a longer period of time,” one of the employees said. As for passengers, they are stranded in different cities of India and Asian countries. To reach their pre-booked destination, they are now forced to a hefty amount.

“We are paying Rs 53,000 for two passengers now while our roundtrip cost for 2 passengers booked last month was Rs 69,000. We have to extend our stay by one day as return tickets, asked by our travel agent, for May 4 was around Rs 1.45 lakh,” said Alen B Krishna, an entrepreneur from Trivandrum who is stuck in Thailand.

Krishna said that he hopes to get a refund for his cancelled flight but as of now, there is no support from Go First customer care and his travel agency. “Our last day in Thailand and a visit to phi phi Island was ruined as we were constantly worried about our return,” he said.

Like Krishna, there are hundreds of passengers stuck abroad. GoFirst cabin crew and pilots are left at different locations. A large number of domestic passengers expressed their anger and accused other airlines of charging exorbitant fares for flights in the same sector.

Go First has said a full refund will be issued to the passengers. The airline on Tuesday filed for voluntary insolvency resolution proceedings before the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Delhi. It said that a severe financial crunch due to non-supply of engines by Pratt & Whitney (P&W) forced the airline to take this extreme step.