New Delhi: A total number of 358 leased aircraft have been removed from the Indian Civil Aircraft registry since January 2018 till date (2023), the government said in Rajya Sabha on Monday.
This reply came in as a written response from the Minister of State in the Ministry of Civil Aviation Gen. Dr V K Singh (Retd) who was replying to a question from BJP MP Sushil Kumar Modi who enquired about a number of leased planes de-registered and repossessed by lessors in last five years.
As many as 358 leased aircraft have been removed from the Indian Civil Aircraft registry since January 2018 till date, the Union Minister said. The list included 123 IndiGo, 103 Jet Airways, 55 SpiceJet, 26 Air India, 21 Go First and some others. On the share of different airlines and the number of passengers carried by each in the last six months, the Minister said, "A total number of 7,61,03,790 passengers in scheduled domestic operations and 1,36,32,621passengers in scheduled international operations have been carried in the last six months (Jan 2023 to till date)."
To a question on GoFirst filing application with DGCA seeking deregistration and repossession of 20 planes leased to Wadia Groups and action taken so far, the Union Minister said, "DGCA has received applications from Lessors for deregistration of a total number of 54 aircraft leased to Go First. Processing of the applications by DGCA is subject to the outcome of the cases before the National Company Law Tribunal, Delhi and the Hon'ble High Court of Delhi."
He also apprised the house that "Go First has submitted the resumption plan to DGCA for operating 150 flights daily with 26 aircraft." "The DGCA has been closely monitoring the situation since the announcement by Go First on 02.05.2023 of the cancellation of their flights and their application for insolvency filed under Section 10 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016 (IBC). In the wake of the suspension of operations by Go First, airlines have been advised to self-regulate the airfares and maintain reasonable price levels and also to introduce new flights on the sectors that had a substantial number of Go First flights ", the MoS replied to a question on steps taken by the government to tackle the situation created by the closure of Go First airlines.
