NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered domestic airlines operating flights within and outside of India to reimburse passengers for the cost of Tickets of flights canceled between March 25 and May 24 without any cancellation fee.
Accepting the proposal of the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) presented by Attorney General Tushar Mehta, a bank of Judges Ashok Bhushan, RS Reddy and M R Shah He said, “Even for international travel, when tickets have been booked at a Indian carrier and the booking is outside of India, if the tickets were booked during the blackout period to travel within the blackout period, an immediate refund will be made. ”
It said the condition of full refund within three weeks would also apply to foreign carriers if the booking was made within India. “In all other cases, the airlines will do their best to refund the amount charged to the passenger within 15 days from today,” they said.
“If due to financial problems, an airline cannot do so, it must provide a credit deposit, equivalent to the amount of the fare charged, in the name of the passenger when the reservation is made directly by the passenger or by a travel agent to consume the same in or before March 31, 2021, “he said. The credit shell could be used to book tickets on any route and could be transferred to another’s name by the original passenger, the bank said, asking the airlines to provide a mechanism for such a transfer.
Since many travelers book their tickets through travel agents, the bank said: “In cases where passengers have purchased the ticket through an agent and a credit deposit is issued on behalf of the passenger, said deposit of Credit will be used only through the agent who has booked the ticket “. If the credit shell is not used by March 31, 2021, then the travel agent will refund the money against you, the bank said.
“In all cases where the credit shell is issued, there will be an incentive to compensate the passenger from the date of cancellation until June 30, in which case the credit shell will be increased by 0.5% of the value nominal (the amount of the fee charged) for each month or part of it between the cancellation date and June 30. Thereafter the value of the credit shell will increase by 0.75% of the monthly nominal value until on March 31, 2021, “he indicated and asked the DGCA to enforce this strictly.
In video: Hit the airlines when SC accepts the DGCA scheme for the reimbursement of airfare
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