Flight operations take another hit: passengers feel the pain

Business COVID-19 National Top story

Passengers ask for refund as plan to restart domestic airline services crash.

As India continues its journey of lockdown till May 3, the domestic flights also keeps down its wheels and remain suspended, tweeted the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) official, the customers are in a rush to cancel their bookings and claim back the refunds for the flights that they have booked in.

One of the passenger claims ,“I had booked tickets a few days ago to get back to my hometown but the flight got cancelled due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. I was later asked to convert my reservation into a credit shell and now no bookings are undertaken and a mess is created.”

Due to the nationwide lockdown, call center operation services have been suspended, making it difficult for the passengers to reach out to the operators on account of getting back the refunds. Apart from Air India, all other airlines were taking domestic bookings post April 14, but after the current extension, the operators are in the process of cancelling the reservations. The amount will be shared in the form of a credit share in the PNR that will be received within 5-7 days.

“The lockdown was an unprecedented happening for us and with the passengers facing problems, it will take some time to function as the call operations are also not working for which people are worried with regards to the travel bans and refund,” said Manas Jain, a travel consultant.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation earlier stated in a report that the flights will soon be running, but with the present scenario, it has stopped its formulation to combat the deadly virus.

Similarly, Indian railway services have also been suspended till May 3. The cargo services have been permitted to continue during the lockdown period, as per the reports.

FEATURE PICTURE CREDIT- AUTHOR

Image Credits- Indigo Airlines

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