COVID-19: Passengers entitled to full refund for air tickets booked during Lockdown 1 & 2
Satya Prakash
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 6
Passengers are entitled to full refund for air tickets booked during Lockdown 1 and 2 during which air travel was banned due to COVID-19 pandemic, the Centre has told the Supreme Court.
“If the tickets have been booked during the first lockdown period, i.e. 25th of March, 2020 to 14th of April, 2020 for the journeys to be undertaken in both first and second lockdown period i.e. from 25th of March, 2020 to 3rd of May, 2020, in all such cases, full refund shall be given by the airlines immediately,” the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said regarding domestic airlines’ tickets booked directly by the passenger with airlines.
Similarly, for international travel when the ticket has been booked on an Indian carrier and the booking is ex-India, it said, “If the tickets have been booked during the lockdown period for travel within the lockdown period, in all such cases full refund shall be given by the airlines immediately. This amount shall be passed on immediately by the Agent to the passengers, as the case may be.”
This was being mandated as the airlines were not supposed to book such tickets during first and second lockdown, it added.
“For all other cases, the airlines shall all endeavor to refund the collected amount to the passenger within 15 days,” it said.
The affidavit has been filed in response to a PIL demanding full automatic refund of money for tickets booked for flights during the COVID19 lockdown. The Supreme Court had on June 12 issued notices to the Civil Aviation Ministry and the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on the PIL filed by Pravasi Legal Cell.
However, the affidavit said, “If on account of financial distress, if the airlines are not able to do so they shall provide a credit shell equal to the amount of fare collected. This credit shell shall be issued in the name of the passenger who has booked the ticket”.
“The passenger shall be able to consume the credit shell up to 31st March, 2021, on any route of his choice. If the passenger wants to buy a ticket of value more than the credit shell, then he can use cash to top it up. If he wants to buy a ticket of value less than the credit shell, he/she can do so and the balance amount of credit shell shall be available to him/her,” the affidavit read.
The petitioner NGO had said both domestic and international airlines were violating the Ministry’s order which obliged them to fully refund the amount for tickets cancelled on account of COVID19 lockdown.
Pointing out that instead of full refund, airlines were providing a credit shell, valid up to one year, the PIL had submitted that failure to refund full amount collected for tickets owing to cancellation of flights due to restrictions imposed by the government to prevent spread of COVID19 violated DGCA’s Civil Aviation Requirement, 2008.
It had referred to the Ministry’s April 16 Office Memorandum (OM) which directed all airline operators to refund the full amount collected for all tickets booked during the first phase of the lockdown between March 25 and April 14 both for domestic and international bookings.
