Biman Bangladesh’s flight 371 from Dhaka to Kathmandu was diverted to Patna, Bihar, due to a technical glitch on Friday. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) stated that the flight landed safely at Patna at 12:00 IST and all 77 passengers on board were safe.
Meanwhile, analysts have predicted that Go First’s bankruptcy will lead to an increase in airfares and give other domestic airlines an opportunity to increase their market share. According to a report by Reuters, Jefferies’ analyst Prateek Kumar wrote in a client note that if the suspension is prolonged, other airlines will look to avail the slots vacated by Go First and grab onto the market share.
The report also revealed that on Wednesday, shares of IndiGo, India’s largest airline, rose over 8% following the filing for bankruptcy by Go First, which attributed the grounding of approximately half of its fleet to “faulty” Pratt & Whitney (P&W) engines. Kumar added that IndiGo is facing a similar problem with P&W engines for some of its fleet, but the airline has been able to better maneuver the crisis owing to its much larger fleet size and better negotiations with the vendor.
Credit Suisse analysts have suggested that lessors may be interested in allocating some of Go First’s aircraft to IndiGo within India due to a similar fleet type. This development could benefit IndiGo by increasing its market share and improving yields in a capacity-constrained environment.
However, Go First Airlines’ CEO Kaushik Khona has said that the owner Wadia Group is completely committed to the airline and is not planning to exit. According to DGCA data, in the first quarter of 2023, Go First carried 29.11 lakh passengers, which gave them a market share of 7.8%. In the same period, Air India and Vistara, both belonging to Tata Group, had a market share of 9% and 8.8%, respectively. Meanwhile, Indigo maintained its dominance with a market share of 55.7% and carried 209.07 lakh passengers in the January-March 2023 quarter.