Inside the chaos at Wadia Group’s Go First
Even as the low-cost carrier faces customer ire, its delicate financial condition and questionable practices raise doubts about the conglomerate’s future in aviation.
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Editor's note: Sharath Devaiah’s family vacation to the Maldives started off well, except for a two-hour delay of their Go First flight to Male. This was the first international trip of the Bengaluru-based family, which included Devaiah’s three-year-old son and his in-laws. But things went downhill the day before they were to fly back home. Their Go First flight, which was slated to take off at 3:15 pm on 17 November, was rescheduled to 3:20 pm the following day due to “operational reasons”. “I had to look for a hotel for the extra night’s stay. The airline folks never came back,” says Devaiah. “It’s complete chaos at the airline. I called them multiple times, but all the calls went unanswered. I was put on hold for 30 minutes. The only reply I got was on Twitter, but they were canned responses.” Devaiah was later offered a choice between a refund and the rescheduled flight. He chose the latter, but also requested the airline staff to pay for the overnight accommodation. “The person said that [Go First] don’t have this in their policy. …
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