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DGCA affidavit on airline refund not adequate to address core issues: IAAI

While hearing the airline ticket refund PIL, the Supreme Court bench on September 9 had asked aviation regulator DGCA to file an additional affidavit within a week. However, trade associations which are party to the case, are of the opinion that the affidavit filed by the regulator is not enough to address the core issues of refund.

IATA Agents Association of India (IAAI) in a statement said that the refund for a cancelled trip by the

airline is the prerogative of the passenger and not a default practice. Hence, the DGCA proposals, contained in their affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court regarding air ticket refund, was not sufficient enough to address the core issue of relief to everyone, whose tickets had been cancelled because of lockdown.

The association has asked the regulator and the operators to comply with the provisions of the air ticket refund as contained in the Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) 2008.

Biji Eapen, National President, IAAI, has demanded airlines to pay full refund of all tickets issued before and after March 24 for the flights that were cancelled due to the Covid-19 advisories, travel ban and the lockdown. Passengers willing to travel conveniently at a later period may be provided with a credit shell, he said.

As far as the travel and tourism industry is concerned, neither travel agents nor airlines can survive without passengers. The airlines are currently not providing full refunds to passengers for cancelled flights due to liquidity crunch. Airlines holding refund amounts in the absence of service as per Contract of Carriage are taking advantage of ‘profit over people’ as the hard-earned money of passengers are being held by the airlines without providing any services, notes IAAI.

Links: ETTravelWorld