With the central government extending the lockdown to May 3 and subsequently suspension of all commercial passenger services till then, domestic airlines have again decided not to refund the customers in cash for their cancelled flights and instead offer them rescheduling of tickets for a later date without any additional fee.
India had imposed a 21-day lockdown from March 25 to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Consequently, all domestic and international commercial passenger flights were suspended for this time period.
However, most of the airlines had been taking bookings except national carrier Air India for domestic flights for the period beyond April 14.
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the extension of lockdown till May 3, the aviation regulator DGCA issued a circular stating all international as well as domestic flights will remain suspended during the lockdown.
“Following orders from the Ministry of Civil Aviation issued to all airlines, we have extended the suspension of our operations until May 3, 2020.
“We are in the process of cancelling the affected bookings and we will offer customers free of charge rescheduling to another date until December 31, 2020,” a Vistara spokesperson told PTI in statement.
The customer, however, will have to pay the fare difference, if any, at the time of rebooking, the airline said.
A GoAir spokesperson said that it has already “factored in” these type of scenario and that the airline will review its earlier scheme of providing rescheduling free of cost at a later date while protecting their existing bookings for one year.
“In accordance with the Prime Minister’s instructions and the DGCA’s circular, GoAir has suspended all its flights till May 3,” GoAir said in a statement on Tuesday.