Checked 12 November 2026. GoAir and Go First belong to the same airline history, but an operating brand, a flight cancellation, admission to insolvency proceedings and a liquidation order are different things. The dated primary record supports a 2005 beginning, a later name change, the 10 May 2023 insolvency admission and the 20 January 2025 liquidation order. It does not establish that every legal or passenger claim has ended.
The court record connects GoAir and Go First
The National Company Law Tribunal's order of 10 May 2023 records the corporate applicant's account that it had operated a low-cost airline called GoAir since November 2005 and was renamed Go First in May 2021.
This is the history recorded in the insolvency order, not a separately inspected inaugural-flight manifest or brand-launch announcement. The month and year are useful anchors; the exact first passenger flight number and departure day remain unconfirmed in this article.
The proceeding concerns Go Airlines (India) Limited. GoAir and Go First are operating-brand names in that company's story. A brand change should not be presented as proof of a newly incorporated airline or as a shutdown followed by an unrelated carrier's launch.
The A320neo expansion had more than one stage
An Airbus release dated 12 July 2016 describes a memorandum of understanding for 72 A320neo aircraft, in addition to an earlier 72-aircraft agreement. It also records the first two aircraft arriving in June.
The later 11 January 2017 Airbus release says a firm contract for the additional 72 was reached on 30 December 2016, bringing the firm order book to 144. It describes GoAir's fleet at that moment as 23 aircraft.
The distinction matters. A memorandum, a firm order and a delivery are not the same milestone. A 144-aircraft order book did not mean 144 aircraft were already in passenger service. The 23-aircraft figure was a dated fleet snapshot, not the final operating fleet.
These manufacturer records show the scale of the planned expansion. They do not prove every later aircraft delivery occurred or decide the cause of the airline's financial difficulties.
May 2023 cancellations and the insolvency order were separate events
The 10 May order records submissions concerning cancelled flights scheduled for 3 and 4 May 2023 and a DGCA show-cause notice dated 2 May. Those dated entries show the operational disruption around the insolvency filing.
The tribunal then admitted the company's application under Section 10 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code on 10 May 2023. Admission to the corporate insolvency resolution process, often shortened to CIRP, was a legal-process milestone.
It was not itself a certificate that passenger services had restarted, nor was it the same as the later liquidation order. The precise last revenue flight number, its arrival time and a final passenger-service movement have not been established from the records used here.
The order includes arguments and submissions about engines, finances and contractual disputes. Those must not all be treated as findings deciding every contested fact. This history does not assign a single technical cause or resolve the engine dispute.
A certificate-holder list is not a live flight timetable
A PIB-hosted annexure listing air-operator-certificate holders as at 23 November 2023 includes Go Airlines (India) Limited, labelled Go First, with an asterisk. The footnote says it was undergoing CIRP.
That is a dated administrative list with an express qualification. The company's presence in it is not proof that its passenger flights were operating normally on that date, still less that the same status remains current in 2026.
We have not used that list to state a current certificate validity, a flight schedule or a restart date. An old certificate entry, a proposed revival and a completed passenger-flight resumption need different evidence.
20 January 2025: liquidation was ordered
The NCLT's 20 January 2025 order allowed the liquidation application for Go Airlines (India) Limited. It records the committee of creditors' July 2024 decision and directs the liquidation process, appointing Dinkar T. Venkatasubramanian as liquidator.
This is a stronger and more specific statement than saying the airline was merely considering liquidation. But an order to liquidate is not proof that every asset has been sold, every distribution completed or the legal entity dissolved on the same day.
The order discusses funding and the process to be undertaken. This article does not turn those directions into completed outcomes or quote a predicted recovery as money that passengers or creditors actually received.
The April appeal decision needs its qualification
The NCLAT judgment dated 4 April 2025 considered appeals against the January liquidation order. Its conclusion says it found no error in the order allowing liquidation and dismissed the appeals, subject to the stated liberty concerning a compromise or arrangement proposal.
That qualification should not be omitted to make the judgment sound broader than it is. At the same time, permission to submit a proposal was not approval of a particular rescue, a completed acquisition or evidence that flights resumed.
We do not present the judgment as a current invitation, deadline calculation or legal advice to a prospective buyer or creditor. It is a dated stage in the case history. Any later proposal, appeal, transaction or distribution needs its own current record.
What remains unconfirmed
The IBBI case-order index helps locate these documents and dates. A case index is not proof that it contains every later development, and the absence of a newer item in the inspected list is not a final legal-status certificate.
We have not established a final dissolution order, the outcome of every related dispute, a current certificate status or the result of an individual passenger's refund claim. These remain unconfirmed here. No current claim deadline, compensation rule or refund route is inferred from the historical court orders.
The supported history is therefore more precise than a single shutdown date: GoAir's recorded beginnings, Go First's later brand identity, the disruption and CIRP admission in May 2023, the liquidation order in January 2025 and the qualified appellate dismissal in April 2025.
Use the history for context, not a new booking
This article is not a current Go First booking or claims service. Old fleet orders and dated certificate lists should not be used to promise that the airline can carry a new journey.
For a present-day itinerary, The Trip Keeper's trip-planning page can collect the actual dates and travel needs. Its private-tour page explains planning around the group. Neither link implies a historic GoAir or Go First service can be booked, or that old claims are included in a travel package.
The hero is a fictional AI watercolor of an invented unbranded jet at an imaginary airport. It is not a GoAir or Go First aircraft, a real livery or a documentary photograph.
Seven primary sources were checked on 12 November 2026: two manufacturer announcements, three dated tribunal records, a dated certificate-holder annexure and the IBBI case index. Claims are tied to those documents' periods rather than presented as an exhaustive statement of the case's current legal position.
- NCLT order, 10 May 2023: admission and recorded corporate history; IBBI copy
- Airbus, 12 July 2016: memorandum for 72 additional A320neos
- Airbus, 11 January 2017: firm contract agreed 30 December 2016
- PIB-hosted annexure: AOC holders as at 23 November 2023, with CIRP footnote
- NCLT order, 20 January 2025: liquidation directed
- NCLAT judgment, 4 April 2025: appeals dismissed subject to stated liberty
- IBBI case-order index: locator and dates, not proof every later matter is complete
A Miranda House graduate and lawyer who traded courtrooms for slow travel. Cheshta travels with the batches we host ourselves, with a soft spot for travelling alongside elders.
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