The Centre has informed the Supreme Court that all domestic and international airlines were bound to refund money to passengers who had cancelled their domestic and international travel plans during the lockdown period from March 25 to May 3 because of the unprecedented pandemic situation — a move which is likely to bring cheers to lakhs of air passengers across the country.

Though the airlines shall “immediately” refund the amount under the existing rules, however, in view of the financial crunch faced by the airlines, the Centre has suggested that it has agreed to give the option of “credit shell” to such passengers till March 31, 2021. If not utilised by that time, the airlines shall refund immediately thereafter.

In an affidavit filed before the apex court, the ministry of civil aviation has said the refusal of the airlines to refund the amount would involve various punitive measures against such errant operators and has accordingly formulated a refund schedule by the airlines for the approval of the Supreme Court which is expected to take up the matter on September 9.

The airlines shall refund all statutory taxes and user development fees, airport development fees, passenger service fee (PSF) in the case of cancellation or non-utilisation of tickets or a no show. This provision shall also be applicable to all 10 types of fares offered, including promos/special fares and where the basic fare is non-refundable.

The affidavit has been filed by O.K. Gupta, director of the directorate general of civil aviation, in compliance with a directive issued by the court on June 6 to explain the stance on the refund of cancelled air tickets, in a PIL complaining about the refusal of the airlines both domestic and international to refund the cancelled tickets during the lockdown period.

“The existing legal regime which is governed by Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) recognises the rights of air passengers to seek refund of their air tickets. The said CARs are to protect the interest of air passengers so that in case of any violation of the provisions of the applicable CARs, appropriate enforcement action can be taken against the violator and the violation can be treated as deficiency of service and the passenger may also approach appropriate legal forum for availing legal remedy and redressing his/her grievances.

“The policy of the central government is that every individual passenger has a right to seek refund of those tickets, the flight for which was cancelled without any fault of his/her. It is stated that non-refund of such fares amount to violation of provisions of the CAR.

The said CAR is necessary to protect the interest of air passengers,”the affidavit filed through advocate V. Balram Das stated.

Proposals

Accordingly, the Centre has suggested the following formulations for approval by the apex court:

If the domestic tickets have been booked during the first lockdown period, that is 25th of March, 2020 to 14th of April, 2020 for the journeys to be undertaken in both the first and second lockdown period, that is from 25th of March, 2020 to 3rd of May, 2020, in all such cases, full refund shall be given by the airlines immediately.

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

If on account of financial distress, if the airlines are not able to do so they shall provide a credit shell equal to the amount of fare collected.