IndiGo on Monday said that the company will refund air fare against ticket cancellations done on account of Coronavirus lockdown, by January 31, 2021.
The airline said in a statement that it had already made 90 per cent of total refunds, approximately Rs 1,000 crore, to its passengers.
"Since the resumption of operations in May, IndiGo has been rapidly refunding amounts owed to customers whose flights had been cancelled during the lockdown. The airline has already processed close to Rs 1000 crore of refunds, which is approximately 90 per cent of the total amount owed to our customers. IndiGo is committed to complete payment against all pending credit shells latest by January 31, 2021," the airline stated.
IndiGo chief executive officer Ronojoy Dutta said that the refunds for cancelled flights could not be processed immediately as their incoming cash flow dried up.
“The sudden onset of Covid-19 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 cancelled 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 per cent 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,” the CEO said.
Domestic and international travel were suspended due to the nationwide lockdown imposed due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
While scheduled domestic passenger flights resumed operations on May 25 after a gap of two months, scheduled international commercial passenger flights continue to be suspended since March 23.
In November, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) extended the suspension of all scheduled international commercial passenger flights to December 31 amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
