SC accepts DGCA's recommendations on refund of flight tickets booked during lockdown

On Thursday, a Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and MR Shah accepted DGCA's recommendations regarding refund of flight tickets booked during coronavirus-induced lockdown. This verdict came on a plea by Pravasi Legal Cell and ors which contended that n-refund by airlines is in violation of Civil Aviation Requirement issued by DGCA. 

DGCA h informed SC that those who me bookings prior to lockdown for up till May 24 would be refunded as per credit shell scheme. On or hand, airlines will immediately refund customers for bookings me during lockdown. Meanwhile, refund for bookings me for travelling on dates after May 24 will be governed by Civil Aviation Requirement.

In order,  apex court also ruled that tickets booked by passengers through travel nts shall be refunded to travel nts. Moreover,  refund will be given for any flight originating out of India, irrespective of wher it is an Indian or international carrier. Currently, re are 9,40,705 active vel coronavirus cases in India while 52,73,201 patients have recovered and 98,678 fatalities have been recorded. 

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Aviation sector during lockdown

At vent of COVID-19 crisis, passenger international air travel was suspended with effect from March 22. Domestic flight operations stopped from midnight of March 24. Centre commenced Vande Bharat mission on May 7 to bring back Indian nationals stranded abro. From May 25, domestic air operations were allowed in a calibrated manner.

Initially, only 33% of summer schedule was permitted to operate which was subsequently increased to 45% on June 26, 2020, and 60% on September 2, 2020. Recently, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri revealed that revenue of Indian carriers reduced to Rs.3651 crore in April-June 2020 in comparison to Rs.25,517 crore in same period last year. Explaining impact of COVID-19 on aviation sector in response to numerous unstarred questions in Parliament, he ted that Air India's revenue h reduced from Rs.7,066 crore in April-June 2019 to Rs.1,531 crore during April-June 2020.

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