India's Go First Airlines Blames Engine Supplier Pratt & Whitney For Bankruptcy

Cash-strapped Indian airline Go First filed for bankruptcy this month, blaming "faulty" Pratt & Whitney engines for the grounding of about half its fleet, Chris Thomas, Dhanya Skariachan and Tanvi Mehta reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: Go First said its filing followed a refusal by Pratt & Whitney, the exclusive engine supplier for the airline's Airbus A320neo aircraft fleet, to comply with an arbitration order to release spare leased engines.

The move marks the first major airline collapse in India since Jet Airways filed for bankruptcy in 2019 and underscores the fierce competition in a sector dominated by IndiGo and the recent merger of Air India and Vistara under the Tata conglomerate.

Go First's total debt to financial creditors was 65.21 billion rupees as of April 28, it said in a bankruptcy filing with the National Company Law Tribunal.

The company had not defaulted on any of those dues as of April 30, but had defaulted on payments to operational creditors, including 12.02 billion rupees to vendors and 26.60 billion rupees to aircraft lessors, it said in the filing.

Go First said its filing followed a refusal by Pratt & Whitney, the exclusive engine supplier for the airline's Airbus A320neo aircraft fleet, to comply with an arbitration order to release spare leased engines that would have allowed the airline to return to full operations.

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