Air India
Air India ordered to pay $121.5 million as refunds and $1.4 million in penalties by US Transportation Dept
The US has ordered Air India to pay a massive $121.5 million as refunds and $1.4 million as a fine for extreme delays in issuing refunds due to cancellation of flights or changes in flight timings during the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, media reports said.
Tata Group-owned Air India is among six airlines that have agreed to pay up the refunds, amounting to a total of $600 million as refunds, the US Department of Transportation said on Monday, according to a report in the media.
Air India's 'refund on request' is not in accordance with the Department of Transportation policy, which requires the air carriers to legally refund tickets in case of cancellation or change in flight schedule.
"Irrespective of Air India's stated refund policy, in practice Air India did not provide timely refunds. As a result, consumers experienced significant harm from the extreme delay in receiving their refunds," the US Department of Transportation said.
The other airlines that were fined include Frontier, TAP Portugal, Aero Mexico, EI AI, and Avianca.
In an investigation, the department found that Air India took more than 100 days to process more than half of the 1900 refund complaints lodged.
In the case of Air India, the instances where it was asked to pay the refund had occurred before the national carrier was acquired by Tatas.
Frontier was ordered to pay $222 million in refunds and $2.2 million in penalty.
TAP Portugal will pay $126.5 million as a refund and $1.1 million in penalty; Avianca ($76.8 million in refund and $750,000 in penalty), EI AI ($61.9 million in refund and $900,000 as penalty) and Aero Mexico ($13.6 million in refund and $900,00 as penalty).
Apart from prompt refunds in case of flight cancellations or significant changes in timings, which the customer may find inconvenient, the US laws mandate that the customers be provided refunds and not vouchers, the Department of Transportation said.
"Whenever that doesn't happen, we will act to hold airlines accountable on behalf of American travellers and get passengers their money back," said US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Flight cancellation is frustrating enough, and you shouldn't also have to haggle or wait months to get your refund, he added.
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