In May: Go First cuts orders for the Airbus A320 Neo

On May 2nd, Go First temporarily ceased operations due to financial problems – officially until May 5th. It blamed engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney, which is currently unable to offer many airlines replacement engines or repair slots for the Airbus A320 Neo’s PW1100G engines.

The Indian airline said it could not use 28 of the aircraft. However, it did not take off again on May 5th, but extended the flight stops over and over—most recently until June 9th. Whether it will actually start is uncertain. The plan is to resume flight operations with 22 aircraft and operate the first charter flights for the Indian Army before scheduled flights are added again.

16 less than the A320 Neo for Go First

Go First, meanwhile, has cut its A320 Neo order from Airbus, as it is now known. At the end of April, 144 A320 Neos were ordered in the aircraft manufacturer’s order book and 56 of them had been delivered to Go First. On the other hand, the May figures published on Wednesday (June 7) show that only 128 orders and 56 A320 Neo have been delivered to the Indian airline.

As a result, Airbus took orders for 16 A320 Neos in May – seven from leasing company BOC Aviation and nine from an undisclosed customer. However, the aircraft manufacturer also had to record 16 cancellations as a result of Go First. Thus, the bottom line was zero.

Just another order in May

The only other order in May was for an Airbus A330-900 for Delta Air Lines. But since Virgin Atlantic Airways also canceled the A330-900, there was also a net zero here. At the end of May, there were 144 net orders for all models in the European aircraft manufacturer’s order book, up to the end of April.

Airbus delivered 63 aircraft to 36 customers in May. Since the beginning of the year, there have now been 244 deliveries to 70 customers.