Defunct airlines in India: Here's a list of air carriers that went bust before Go First

Produced by: Harshita Tyagi
Designed by: Mohsin Shaikh

Go First Airlines, owned by Wadia Group, on Tuesday filed for voluntary insolvency resolution proceedings before NCLT, saying that it is no longer in a position to continue to meet its financial obligations and has taken the step "to protect the interests of all stakeholders"

Go First faces financial
crunch

Go First is not the first airline in India to face the threat of going under. There have been numerous failed airlines in India as more than 15 airlines have shut down over the last two decades. It is a long list of failures, from East West Airlines and Damania Airways to Kingfisher Airlines and more recently Jet Airways

Airline failures in India

East West Airlines, head-quartered in Trivandrum, was the first national-level private airline in India to operate after almost 37 years. The airline began operations in early 1992, and on August 8, 1996, East West Airlines ceased all operations

East West Airlines

Image: Flickr

ModiLuft was among the first of India's first post-deregulation airlines, launched in April 1993 by industrialist SK Modi in technical partnership with the German flag carrier Lufthansa. The two companies later fell out and the airline got grounded while its Air Operators Certificate was acquired by SpiceJet

ModiLuft

Image: Xplane.org

Damania Airways was founded in 1992 and began flying on March 10, 1993. In 1995, Chennai-based Khemka-owned NEPC group, promoters of the Skyline NEPC airline acquired Damania Airways, and the entire airline was renamed Skyline NEPC. NEPC Airlines and its subsidiary, Skyline NEPC, were grounded in 1997

Damania Airways

It was a regional airline headquartered in Bangalore and based at Kempegowda International Airport. The airline was a subsidiary of Decor Aviation, an aircraft ground-handling services company. It commenced operations on April 12, 2015, and the airline suspended operations on July 27, 2016, facing financial difficulties

Air Pegasus

Air Costa was a regional airline headquartered in Vijayawada and based out of Chennai International Airport. It commenced operations in October 2013. The airline operated 32 daily flights to 9 destinations. On February 28, 2017, it suspended operations stating financial difficulties

Air Costa

Founded in 2011 by the Religare Group, Air Mantra was a regional airline. Revenue flights were launched on July 23, 2012. Eight months after launch, on March 31, 2013, all operations were suspended due to poor bookings, and the company was subsequently liquidated

Air Mantra

Air Carnival was a regional airline founded in 2013, and it ceased operations on April 6, 2017. In November 2017, NCLT ordered the corporate insolvency resolution process against the airline and ordered liquidation of the company in January 2019

Air Carnival

Indus Air was a regional domestic airline based in Ghaziabad, India. Its main base was Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi. It was established in 2004 and started operations on December 14, 2006. It ceased all operations in April 2007

Indus Air

Fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines operated from 2005 to 2012, before shutting down due to financial troubles, including high levels of debt and the inability to pay employee salaries and maintain operations

Kingfisher Airlines

Paramount Airways was an airline based in Chennai, India. The airline started operations in October 2005 with the company headquartered in Madurai. It operated scheduled services, mainly targeting business travellers, until it ceased operations in 2010

Paramount Airways

One of India's largest airlines, Jet Airways operated from 1993 to 2019, before ceasing operations due to financial troubles and the inability to secure emergency funding. Jet Airways was the second largest airline in the country with a market share of 17.8% in its peak years

Jet Airways

JetLite was a low-cost subsidiary of Jet Airways. It was formerly known as Air Sahara until the buyout by Jet Airways which rebranded the airline as JetLite. On April 17, 2019, JetLite grounded all of its flights and ceased all operations, in tandem with its parent company, Jet Airways

JetLite

AirAsia India, a joint venture between Malaysia's AirAsia and India's Tata Group, operated from 2014 to 2021 before ceasing operations due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the aviation industry

AirAsia India