Complete Refund of Flight Tickets Booked During Lockdown Period? 

The Supreme Court on Friday sought reply from Ministry of Civil Aviation on petitions seeking complete refund of airline tickets booked for flights during the lockdown period. The top court also asked the Narendra Modi-led central government and airlines to sit together and devise modalities for ways to refund.

Notably, the petitions filed by ‘Pravasi Legal Cell’ through its secretary Bins Sebastian, had urged the top court to declare the action of the airlines of not refunding the entire value of cancelled air tickets as illegal and violative of the Civil Aviation Requirement issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). 

“It is submitted that the Airlines instead of providing the full refund of the amount collected for the tickets due to cancellation, are providing a Credit Shell, valid upto one year, which is clear in violation of the Civil Aviation Requirement of May 2008 issued by the DGCA which clearly states that ‘the option of holding the refund amount in credit shell by the airlines shall be the prerogative of the passenger and not a default practice of the airline,” the plea said. 

Referring to the earlier prevalent practice, it said in case of credit card payments, refund shall be made by the airlines within seven days of the cancellation to the account of the credit-card holder and in the case of a cash transaction, the refund shall be “made immediately” by the airline office from where the ticket was purchased.