After government prod, IndiGo to start refunds next week

NEW DELHI: Govt on Friday directed IndiGo to start the process of compensating passengers affected by its massive flight disruptions this month at the earliest.The airline will, from Dec 26, start giving travel vouchers worth Rs 10,000 each to "severely impacted customers who were stranded at airports for many hours" on Dec 3, 4 and 5, apart from an additional Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 in accordance with govt norms.Aviation secretary Samir Sinha issued the directive during a review on Friday. "Compensation payment should start within a week for passengers who booked tickets directly from IndiGo website as their data is already with the airline. IndiGo has been directed to collect information about people who booked tickets via travel agents and online travel agencies (OTA) from the latter and pay the compensation directly to passengers.

This work should also start soon," said an official. DGCA has been directed to ensure that every affected passenger gets compensation and the ministry will supervise the process through its Air Seva portal.While IndiGo has initiated refunds, many who booked via OTAs are still waiting. For instance, Asha Sen (name changed) used her credit card points to partly pay for her flight from Udaipur to Delhi on Dec 7. " IndiGo says the refund has been initiated, but the OTA is yet to start the process so that the bank can reverse the credit card points used as well as the balance payment made using the card," said Sen, a south Delhi-based banker.

IndiGo executives said refunds have been given for affected days without any cuts. "Now it is up to OTAs to transfer the same in full to passengers," they said. Sources said leading OTAs like MakeMyTrip had initiated the payments even before getting the same from IndiGo. MMT paid almost Rs 10 crore worth refunds, said people in the know. DGCA had last week called a meeting with OTAs, where they were asked to give a full refund without any cuts. Between Dec 1 and 9, IndiGo cancelled 4,354 flights. The number of flights cancelled on Dec 3, 4 and 5 was 2,456 domestic and 51 international. Estimating 150 passengers per flight of just these 2,507 and not those on delayed ones, who may also be eligible for vouchers, the airline may have to issue vouchers to over 3.8 lakh. Their total worth: over Rs 376 crore.