Will Go First's search for a suitor send more billionaires tumbling?

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Mukesh Ambani owns one of the world’s most expensive private jets and even gifted his wife an Airbus A319 for her birthday. Gautam Adani has three private jets, housed in a $50 million hangar. Neither of them owns an airline, though.

It may seem facetious to say that India’s two wealthiest men are where they are on the rich list because they don’t own an airline business, but it’s unnervingly close to the truth. Civil aviation is a notoriously fickle business, with a knack for gobbling up vast fortunes. When asked how to become a millionaire, Virgin Group founder and maverick billionaire Richard Branson – who pumped $260 million of his own funds into Virgin Atlantic and took on $1.5 billion in debt to keep it afloat in 2020 – quipped: “Start with a billion dollars.

Then start an airline." But there’s something about seeing one’s colours on the bodies and tails of giant flying machines that seems to have an irresistible lure for the world’s wealthy entrepreneurs. Reuters reports that Jindal Power, owned by the flamboyant, polo-playing billionaire Naveen Jindal, was the sole applicant whose ‘expression of interest’ – the first step before a financial bid is submitted – had been accepted by lenders of the bankrupt Go First. The Wadia Group airline had filed for insolvency in May after problems with its Pratt & Whitney engines grounded a majority of its fleet.

However, Jindal Power has clarified that while it is interested in acquiring smaller companies in other sectors through the insolvency route, its interest in Go First may not result in an actual bid. There’s certainly room for another airline in India’s booming airline market, already the world’s third-largest and the fastest growing one globally. Passenger traffic has