DGCA's refund proposal will benefit travellers, says travel agency

Lauding the DGCA's proposal to fully refund the amount for cancelled air tickets, Nishant Pitti, founder of EaseMyTrip, a well-known travel agency in the country, has said that the proposal will benefit travellers and promote positive sentiment for booking advance tickets.

New Delhi: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) proposal to the Supreme Court that amount for cancelled air tickets should be "fully refunded" will benefit travellers and give positive sentiment for booking advance tickets, said a travel agency.

The Supreme Court on Sunday was informed by the aviation regulator that tickets booked by passengers in domestic and international Carriers for air travel between March 25 to May 3 this year, will be "fully refunded".

"This move will benefit travellers and give positive sentiment for booking advance tickets, but some airlines like IndiGo and AirAsia have already refunded the whole amount in lockdown period itself, which is giving them an edge over other airlines, as the risk factor of airlines is missing because of refunds issue," said Nishant Pitti, founder of EaseMyTrip to ETV Bharat.

"We at EaseMyTrip were the first ones to refund money to customers in lockdown period in their bank account, wherein other companies were holding and giving credit vouchers to customers for future travel," he further said.

When ETV Bharat tried to contact IndiGo, SpiceJet and AirAsia India, they did not respond.

"If the tickets have been booked during the first lockdown period, i.e. March 25, 2020 to April 14, 2020 for the journey to be undertaken in both first and second lockdown period i.e. from March 25, 2020 to May 3 2020, a full refund shall be given by the airlines immediately," the affidavit filed by DGCA before the top court stated.

"For all other cases the airlines shall make all endeavours to refund the collected amount to the passenger within 15 days," it added.

The DGCA also said that the "credit shell shall be transferable", adding that the passenger can transfer the credit shell to any person, and the airlines shall honour such a transfer.

The affidavit further added that the airlines shall devise a mechanism to facilitate such a transfer and by the end of March 2021, the airlines shall refund cash to the holder of the credit shell.