Coronavirus: Supreme Court orders refund of airline tickets for flights cancelled due to lockdown

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

New Delhi: On October 1, the apex court ordered refund of airline tickets for flights cancelled due to lockdown. This includes air tickets of 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.

Agreeing to the Centre's proposal, the Supreme 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.

The top court's verdict came on a batch of petitions, including by NGOs and passengers’ associations, seeking complete refund of ticket fare for the flights cancelled.

According to reports, the court said that in cases where tickets are booked through an agent and credit shell is issued in the name of the passenger remains unutilized till March 31, 2021. Then the “refund of the fare collected shall be made to the same account from which account amount was received by the airline”.

The bench said that in all cases where a credit shell is issued there shall be an incentive to compensate the passenger from the date of cancellation up to June 30, 2020 in which event the credit shell shall be enhanced by 0.