- India’s aviation industry is expected to incur losses worth $3 billion-$3.6 billion in the June quarter because of Covid-19
- If you have booked flight tickets between April 15 to May 3, here is all you need to know
In the wake of coronavirus outbreak in the country, India decided to extend the nationwide lockdown till May 3. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the extension of the lockdown, the Centre suspended all the domestic and international passenger flights till May 3. “All domestic and international scheduled airlines operations shall remain suspended till 11.59 pm of 3rd May 2020,” the ministry of civil aviation said in a statement.
If you have booked flight tickets between April 15 to May 3, you may not get a cash refund against the cancelled fights. Airlines have offered rescheduling of tickets without any additional fee instead of full refund in cash. IndiGo, SpiceJet and Vistara have informed via Twitter that customers can reschedule their tickets to another date without paying anything extra.
Here is how it will work
IndiGo said that the ticket amount would be considered as a credit shell balance which flyers could use in future. “You ticket amount is protected in the form of a credit shell in the PNR, which will be shared with you in the next 5-7 days,” IndiGo wrote on the micro-blogging site.
Passengers will be able to use the credit within one year from the issued date. Flyers can retrieve itinerary from “Edit Booking” option on the website of airlines to view the credit shell balance.
SpiceJet said that customers could use the credit shell balance to book tickets till February 28, 2021. One can see the credit amount under the “Manage Booking” section on SpiceJet website. While booking a fresh ticket, passengers can pay the amount using credit shell option.
Vistara would contact the customers who had booked flights for this period, the airlines wrote on Twitter. Flyers can reschedule their tickets till December 31, 2020. The customer will have to pay the fare difference, if any, at the time of rescheduling, the airline told PTI.
Most of the airlines had started taking new bookings after April 14 for domestic flights. Only Air India has suspended sale of tickets for domestic and international flights till April 30.
India’s aviation industry is expected to incur losses worth $3 billion-$3.6 billion in the June quarter because of Covid-19, with airlines being the worst hit, consultancy firm Capa India had said in a report.
