Amid Indigo Crisis Exploring 9 Major Airlines That Disappeared from Indian Skies

The long growing history of airline failure highlights various reasons such as inefficient finances, troubled partnership or inability to adapt business models. The 9 prominent airlines this article talks about are:

1. Kingfisher Airlines

Launched in 2005 and famed for premium service and glamour, it does not have any traces left. The greed for fleet expansion by acquiring Air Deccan cost it heavily, straining the airline's finances later. Poor financial management, loss of investor confidence and the inadequacy to pay salaries, taxes, etc. resulted in the DGCA suspension of Kingfisher's license.

2. Air Sahara

One of India's early private carriers raised in 1993 stood deviantly because of its on time performance record and bright reputation. The gradual competition with emerging low cost airlines and stress to scale profitably crafted its downfall. Later getting acquired by Jet Airways in 2007 led to its exit as an independent brand.

3. Jet Airways

Once known as India's leading full service airline, signifying its excellent service quality and large domestic-international network. But the higher operational costs, expensive mergers, competition with emerging carriers like Indigo and SpiceJet, Piling-up debt decided its fate of suspending operations in 2019.

4. AIX Connect (formerly AirAsia India)

AIX Connect entered the Indian market with the Tata group and AirAsia joint venture. Achieved prominence due to its low cost model, strong brand backing and good customer service. But could not scale much due to the competition, complex share-holding issues and regulatory obstacles, hence discontinuing in 2023.

5. Paramount Airways

Paramount was founded in 2005 as a business-class only regional airline. It operated with high comfort and had a niche stronghold in South India. The unforeseen downfall in 2010 was caused due to legal disputes, inability to replace aircraft and definitive financial issues.

6. Air Deccan

Evident as India's first trye low-cost carrier, that revolutionised Indian aviation with ticket prices like train fare, hence democratising air travel. Eventually, this left the airline4 with extremely thin margins and high operating costs. Later it was acquired by Kingfisher in 2007 and lost its identity.

7. Vistara

Launched in 2015 as a premium full-service airline by Tata sons and Singapore Airlines, known for fleet quality, service excellence and consistent customer satisfaction. Now, under the Tata group's objective of unified national carrier, cost efficiency and global competitiveness, Visatara is getting consolidated under Air India.

8. TruJet

TruJet, launched in 2015 as a regional carrier under the UDAN scheme, built prominence by offering strong connectivity across South Indian states, backed initially by actor Ram Charan. However, heavy losses in regional aviation, inability to maintain its fleet and service reliability, pushed TruJet into financial distress, leading to suspension of operations in 2022.

9. Go First

Formerly known as GoAir, began in 2005 as a low-cost airline founded by the Wadia Group remained profitable for several years before rebranding as Go First in 2021 with aggressive expansion plans. Its downfall stemmed from severe aircraft groundings linked to Pratt & Whitney engine issues that crippled capacity, triggering mounting losses, culminating in a voluntary insolvency filing in May 2023 and a complete suspension of operations.

This article is authored by S. Krishna Kumari Patro, an intern at Deccan Chronicle