Crisis-hit Go First has announced that its flights will remain grounded for three more days till June 7 due to "operational reasons". The cash-strapped airlines said that it will issue a full refund to all the passenegers in their original mode of payment. The Wadia group-owned airline had earlier announced the suspension of flight operations until June 4 but anounced extension of cancellation before the said date.
In an announcement issued on Twitter, the airline said all Go First flights scheduled till June 7, 2023, have been cancelled. Go First said, "We regret to inform that due to operational reasons, Go First flights scheduled till 07th June 2023 have been cancelled. We apologise for the inconvenience caused by the flight cancellations."
A full refund will be issued to the original mode of payment shortly, the airline added.
As the company underwent an insolvency resolution process, it temporarily ceased operations starting May 3 and its petition for the insolvency proceedings was admitted by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) on May 10.
A section of Go First staff are optimistic about restarting of operations, another section are pessimistic about the airline's future course considering what had happened to erstwhile Kingfisher Airlines and Jet Airways, according to employees who spoke to news agency PTI.
Apart from the uncertainty staring at more than 7,000 Go First staff, a significant fallout is the spike in air ticket prices on certain routes that used to be serviced by the airline, which was operating around 170-180 flights daily.
Travel portal Cleartrip's Vice President - Air Category - Gaurav Patwari told the news agency: "There is a sharp spike in fares especially for travel within D15 which can be attributed to the ongoing Go First issue. The fares within D15 travel have increased by 22 per cent and at the aggregate level up by more than 20 per cent over April for domestic travel."