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By Express News Service
NEW DELHI: Low-cost carrier GoFirst’s announcement of cancelling all flights from May 3 to May 5 and filing for voluntary insolvency resolution proceedings has come as a shock for its employees and passengers.
It has over 5,000 employees, including pilots and cabin crew. They are now uncertain about their future as they don’t want a repetition of Jet Airways, whose collapse in April 2019 had deserted over 15,000 employees.
“The mood is sombre and we are waiting for clarity from the management,” said a senior pilot at GoFirst requesting anonymity. Another pilot said many in his fraternity had started applying at rival airlines, especially at Air India.
“We are paid lower than pilots of rival airlines. The repetitive delay in salary was indicating all is not well with the airline,” the pilot said. Meanwhile, passengers are furious over flight cancellations and they are not sure whether they would receive a refund.
“Go First did check in G8 283 Pune to Nagpur and at the last moment they canceled it. Now it is a common issue of this airline,” said Satish Ubale, a passenger, on Twitter. Hundreds of other passengers also shared their woes and requested aviation minister J Scindia to intervene.
GoFirst said a full refund will be issued to the passengers shortly. Mark Martin, CEO at aviation consultancy Martin Consulting LLC, said the government should chip in to save the airline, the livelihood of 5,000 workers and the interest of passengers.
“There is an urgent need to safeguard a domestic player. It is the sole failure of the engine-maker (P&W) that GoFirst has to take this step,” said Martin.
NEW DELHI: Low-cost carrier GoFirst’s announcement of cancelling all flights from May 3 to May 5 and filing for voluntary insolvency resolution proceedings has come as a shock for its employees and passengers.
It has over 5,000 employees, including pilots and cabin crew. They are now uncertain about their future as they don’t want a repetition of Jet Airways, whose collapse in April 2019 had deserted over 15,000 employees.
“The mood is sombre and we are waiting for clarity from the management,” said a senior pilot at GoFirst requesting anonymity. Another pilot said many in his fraternity had started applying at rival airlines, especially at Air India.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });
“We are paid lower than pilots of rival airlines. The repetitive delay in salary was indicating all is not well with the airline,” the pilot said. Meanwhile, passengers are furious over flight cancellations and they are not sure whether they would receive a refund.
“Go First did check in G8 283 Pune to Nagpur and at the last moment they canceled it. Now it is a common issue of this airline,” said Satish Ubale, a passenger, on Twitter. Hundreds of other passengers also shared their woes and requested aviation minister J Scindia to intervene.
GoFirst said a full refund will be issued to the passengers shortly. Mark Martin, CEO at aviation consultancy Martin Consulting LLC, said the government should chip in to save the airline, the livelihood of 5,000 workers and the interest of passengers.
“There is an urgent need to safeguard a domestic player. It is the sole failure of the engine-maker (P&W) that GoFirst has to take this step,” said Martin.
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