Airlines have Rs 3,700 cr cash pile for pre-March 25 sales

Airline companies are sitting on a cash pile of close to Rs 3,700 crore towards the tickets booked before March 25 for travel between March 25 and May 17. This amount is not refunded to passengers and is kept in the credit shells for passengers.

While the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) directed airlines to refund fares for bookings made after March 25, it is silent on bookings made prior to March 25 for the travel during the lockdown period up to May 17.

According to an estimate by online travel agency easemytrip.com, the total value of tickets booked before March 25 but travel after March 25, which is cancelled as per government order, is Rs 3,700 crore. Of this, Rs 2,200 crore is for domestic travel while the rest is for international travel.

“We have refunded almost Rs 50 crore to passengers towards the bookings made since March,” Nishant Pitti, CEO, easemytrip.com told DH.

However, other OTAs like makemytrip.com have retained the refund amount in their own wallet for bookings made post March 25 and have not refunded passengers. As a result, customers have no choice but to travel over the next one year, industry sources said.

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Despite repeated attempts to reach out to makemytrip.com for a comment, there was no response.

However, airlines are holding cash in digital wallets with agents for tickets booked after March 25 and giving credit shells to passengers for bookings done prior to March 25 which can be used for future travel up to March 2021.