Many airline companies in the country have not yet refunded the passengers for the flight tickets that were booked during the lockdown period last year which had to be cancelled.
In a meeting headed by the ministry of civil aviation (MoCA) Secretary on Wednesday, all the airline representatives were highly discouraged of not refunding the money against the cancelled flights to the passengers.
While airline companies like GoAir and IndiGo have confirmed clearing (refunding) all the credit shells to the passengers, SpiceJet, Air India, Vistara and Air Asia are yet to clear their dues/refunds for their passengers.
The Supreme Court has demanded the completion of refunds for all the credit shells to all passengers, until March 31.
MoCA Sec on Refund of Cancelled Airline Tickets
Many passengers got their air bookings cancelled last year, due to travel restrictions put in place during the lockdown.
While the civil aviation ministry and directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) ordered airline companies to refund passengers the cost of the tickets of flights cancelled during the lockdown period, many passengers are yet to be refunded.
Taking up this matter of refund of credit shells of passengers on Wednesday, the MoCA Secretary expressed dissatisfaction towards all the airline companies who have failed to refund the passengers yet.
In the meeting attended by airline representatives on ‘refund of credit shells of passengers’, GoAir and IndiGo submitted their undertaking to the ministry that they have refund all the credit shells to the passengers, stated ANI.
A credit shell is a credit note created against a cancelled PNR and can be used by the passenger for a future booking.
Furthermore, the Supreme Court has ordered MoCA to clear all the credit shells and refund the passengers after the deadline of March 31.
Airline Companies Yet to Refund Passengers
SpiceJet is among the airline companies currently defaulting on payments of refunds to its passengers, on cancelled flights.
A spokesperson commented, “SpiceJet had written to all its travel partners and agents in March 2021 to share details of pending credit shell PNRs so that the airline can immediately reverse the credit shell amount back to the agency ID.”
National carrier Air India is another such airline which has yet to refund credit shells to passengers. In fact, Air India has to refund credit shells amounting nearly Rs 2000 to 5.25 lakh passengers.
“Air India has cleared close to ?1000 Crore from 1st April 2020 till date in India. We are also addressing queries related to refunds from passengers through our social media platforms.”, commented Air India’s spokesperson.
Other airline companies in this list are Air Asia and Vistara.
An official of Air Asia India commented, “We are thorough with all our refunds except in a very few cases where we are trying to reach out to the passengers to revert with their bank account details in which the money is to be credited.”
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