US orders Air India to pay $121.5m as refund

THE US Department of Transpor- tation (DoT) has asked Tata Group- owned Air India to pay a fine of $1.4m, in addition to $121.5m as refunds to passengers, whose flights were canceled during the Covid pandemic.

Air India is among the six airlines that have been ordered to pay up over $600m as refunds, said the US DoT on Monday. In addition to Air India, the other airlines that were slapped with fines include Frontier, TAP Portugal, Aero Mexico, EI AI and Avianca.

The Tata-owned airline confirmed that it had received a fine pertaining to delayed refunds, ‘which mostly pertain to the pandemic period during which Air India was a publicly-owned entity'. According to agency reports, Air India's policy of 'refund on request' is contrary to the Department of Transportation policy, which mandates air carriers to legally refund tickets in the case of cancellation or change in flight.

In its order, the DoT said it had received over 1,900 complaints since March 2020, alleging that Air India took more than 100 days to process most of the refund requests.