INR 120 crore ticket money of Rajasthan flyers stuck with airlines

A whopping INR 120 crore of ticket money of passengers who were supposed to fly from various parts of Rajasthan to national and international destinations are stuck with various airline companies.

Though all flights have been cancelled, people are yet to receive their cancellation refunds.

The central government recently issued a notification that people who booked flight tickets between March 25 and may 3 will get full refunds. Though it sounds promising, it’s not given much relief to passengers.

Rajasthan travel agent Association president Dheeraj Mittal said, “The notification by the central government is valid just for those flights that were booked during the lockdown period — March 25 to May 3. Flight tickets booked in advance won’t be refunded.”

Mittal said this had become a headache for travel agents in the state and everyone over the country as people are demanding money from them.

“Airline companies are making money out of it and other people are holding us responsible. this is often not fair on the part of the govt and it should make the companies pay back cancellation amount of all the tickets booked in advance. Most of the people book flights tickets for a minimum of 3 months in advance.”

“When lockdown started, people were booking flight tickets just for an emergency which was short-lived as domestic flight travel was also put on hold around that time,” Mittal said.

Airline companies have also come up with a method to offer customers ‘credit shells’ which may be used any time within a year. This, however, is considered to be against the norms of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

On Monday, a PIL was filed in Supreme Court against credit shells given by the airline companies.