Airlines balk at refunds as UK tells travellers not to fly

British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. aren’t offering refunds to passengers who cancel year-end trips following new U.K. coronavirus rules, even as regulators investigate carriers’ earlier refusal to hand cash back to customers caught in lockdown.

IAG SA-owned BA will grant ticket holders a voucher or let them switch to a later date, it said in an emailed statement. It said it will only refund fares if the airline cancels a flight, a policy echoed by Virgin Atlantic in a Twitter post.

The refund issue ignited a firestorm when similar curbs were in place last month. The UK Competition and Markets Authority launched a probe last week into whether airlines violated consumer rights by failing to offer passengers their money back for flights they couldn’t lawfully take.