Centre directs online portals to refund air tickets booked during Covid
PTC News Desk: Central government has directed online travel portals to process pending refunds on air ticket bookings made during the Covid-19 lockdown, by the third week of November.
During the coronavirus pandemic, a nationwide lockdown was imposed for varying periods beginning March 25, 2020, and scheduled commercial flight services were suspended for a certain period.
The Consumer Affairs Ministry met with online travel aggregators on Wednesday to discuss issues affecting consumer interest in the travel sector.
The issue of non-refund of tickets booked during the COVID-19 lockdown was discussed in a meeting that was chaired by Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh.
Subsequently, an official statement stated that travel aggregators have been asked to release the pending refunds affected by the COVID-19 lockdown by the end of this month's third week.
"Further, the establishment of an Ombudsman for time-bound resolution of consumer grievances was also deliberated. The Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Department of Consumer Affairs can jointly work on the modalities involved in establishing the same," the release further added.
Integrating the National Consumer Helpline and the Air Sewa Portal to effectively resolve consumer complaints was another suggestion made during the meeting.
- With inputs from agencies
