Budget carrier Indigo on Monday said that the company will disburse all refunds to passengers against the flight ticket cancellations done due to Covid Lockdown, by January 31, 2021.
Indigo has said that so far the company has made 90 percent of total refunds while about Rs 100 crore has been already paid to customers.
In a statement, the airline said that it had already provided refunds to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore, which is about 90% of the total credit shells the airline owed. Since the resumption of operations in May, IndiGo has been rapidly refunding amounts owed to customers whose flights had been canceled during the lockdown, the airline said.
“The sudden onset of Covid19 and the resulting lockdown, brought our operations to a complete halt by the end of March of this year. As our incoming cash flow dried up, we were unable to immediately process refunds for canceled flights and had to create credit shells for the refunds that were due to our customers. However, with the resumption of operations and a steady increase in demand for air travel, our priority has been to refund the credit shell amounts in an expedited manner. We are pleased to commit that we will disburse the full 100% credit shell payments latest by January 31, 2021. We would like to thank all our customers who stood by us for their patience and understanding during this unprecedented crisis,” Ronojoy Dutta, Chief Executive Officer, IndiGo said.
The Supreme Court had in October ordered all airlines to make complete payments of refunds to passengers by March 2021. SC directed refund of air tickets, domestic and international, for travel during the COVID-19 lockdown period from March 25 to May 24 within three weeks from the date of the cancellation of flights.
Accepting the Centre’s proposal, the top court directed that if the tickets have been booked through an agent for travel within the lockdown period, in all such cases full refund shall be given by the airlines immediately and the amount shall be passed on immediately by the agent to the passengers.
“However, with the resumption of operations and a steady increase in demand for air travel, our priority has been to refund the credit shell amounts in an expedited manner. We are pleased to commit that we will disburse the full 100% credit shell payments latest by January 31, 2021. We would like to thank all our customers who stood by us for their patience and understanding during this unprecedented crisis,” Ronojoy Dutta, IndiGo’s CEO, said in a statement.
