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At a time when Jet Airways and IndiGo are facing business headwinds, GoAir plans to start international operations from October 11.
On Thursday, the Mumbai-based carrier announced its inaugural international flights from New Delhi and Mumbai to Phuket (Thailand) starting October 11, and to Male in Maldives from October 14.
The airline has shortlisted other destinations that it will add to its international charts.
Talking to BusinessLine , GoAir CEO Cornelis Vrieswijk said the airline is in discussions to purchase wide-body aircraft to fly long distances. Currently, budget airlines such as IndiGo and SpiceJet offer only short- haul international connections as long-haul flights require bigger planes, which are usually not suitable for domestic flying, thus limiting their usage.
Vrieswijk, however, did not specify what aircraft or what routes the airline is considering for long-haul flying.
"We would be looking at the under-served markets like Phuket," Vrieswijk said.
The bookings for the maiden international flight commenced on Thursday. The airline will be the sixth domestic carrier to have international operations after Air India, Air India Express, Jet Airways, SpiceJet and IndiGo.
GoAir launched domestic operations in November 2005 and was granted rights in August 2016 to operate flights to nine countries, including Maldives, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, China, and Vietnam.
The airline has been planning to launch international services for more than a year and the initial timeline was October of last year, but grounding of some of the Pratt & Whitney engine-powered Airbus A320 Neo planes led to the postponement of the plans.
Vrieswijk said two of the airline's A320 Neos are still grounded, causing immense financial damage. He added that the airline is negotiating damages with both Airbus as well as Pratt and Whitney for the financial loss.
However, he maintained that for the upcoming deliveries of the new A320 Neos, the airline will continue to opt for Pratt and Whitney engines as the alternative is equally unreliable at the moment.
"Evidence shows that both engines have their own problems," Vrieswijk said. "There's a harsh environment in India with small particles entering the engine and clogging them. It is much worse than we see in the US or Europe. We are in close contact with Pratt & Whitney to understand how they will expand their their overall capacity in the world in order to manage all the engine changes coming up," Vrieswijk added.
IndiGo, Spicejet and GoAir had to ground several of their planes in the past few months over the failure of Pratt & Whitney engines installed in the A320 Neos.
GoAir operates over 1,544 weekly flights across 23 destinations with a fleet of 38 Airbus A320 planes, including 19 A320 Neos.
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