INDIGO PAYS REFUNDS WORTH ₹1,030 CRORE TO PASSENGERS
NEW DELHI: India’s largest domestic airline IndiGo on Wednesday said it has refunded about ₹1,030 crore to customers, complying with a Supreme Court order last year asking airlines to refund payments made for travel during the nationwide lockdown.
“IndiGo completes disbursement of 99.95% customer credit shells and refunds,” the airline operated by InterGlobe Aviation Ltd said in a statement.
“The pending credit shells are mostly cash transactions wherein IndiGo is awaiting bank transfer details from the customers,” it added.
In September 2020, the apex court had directed airlines to immediately refund fares booked for travel until May 24, 2020. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had separately issued a notification on 16 April, 2020, ordering airlines to immediately refund tickets booked during the first phase of the lockdown from March 25 to April 14, 2020.
The apex court said in its order that the value of an air ticket refunded through credit shell vouchers will be increased by 0.50% per month (6% per annum) till 30 June 2020 and thereafter till March 31, 2021, by 0.75% per month (9% per annum). However, airlines in financial distress could issue credit shell vouchers till Marchend. “The sudden onset of covid-19 and the resulting lockdown brought our operations to a complete halt by the end of March of 2020. As our incoming cash flow through ticket sales got impacted, we were unable to immediately process refunds for cancelled flights and had to create credit shells for the refunds that were due to our customers,” IndiGo’s chief executive Rono Dutta said in the statement.
“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,” Dutta added.