The Supreme Court in its judgement dated October 1, 2020 has directed airlines to refund within three weeks to all passengers, domestic and international, the prices of tickets booked during the lockdown between March 24 and May 24, 2020.
In case due to financial stress if the airlines are unable to refund the amount, the court has allowed them “credit shell” that a passenger would be able to exchange for ticket till March 31, 2021. However, airlines opting for the “credit shell” will have to pay an interest of 0.5 per cent per month to the passenger till June 30, 2020 on the ticket amount for the tickets booked between March 24 and May 24, 2020. The interest rate for subsequent months till March 2021 will be 0.75 per cent per month. It effectively means interest rate @8.25 per cent for 12 months of credit from April 2020 to March 2021.
