Still a long route to get your money back

New Delhi: If you have taken a flight out of Delhi this month after booking the ticket in May, you are entitled to a partial refund. But getting your money back won’t be easy. The Delhi high court ordered the private airport operator Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) on June 1 to stop collecting the airport development fee (ADF) of R200 from domestic passengers and Rs1,300 from international passengers. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation then asked airlines to refund passengers who had already paid the fee in advance bookings.
Every day, some 35,000 domestic and 17,000 international passengers fly out of Delhi. That adds up to about Rs3 crore a day as ADF for DIAL.
None of the airlines has, however, informed passengers they are supposed to get the ADF back. Passengers who are aware of this are not finding it easy to get the refund as state-owned Air India seems to be the only carrier that has put a refunding system in place.
“Those passengers who have booked tickets from our counters can collect the refund from any of our counters and others can collect it from their travel agents,” said an Air India spokesperson. “The amount will reach directly the accounts of those passengers who had booked tickets online.”
Private carriers, including Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines, IndiGo and SpiceJet, couldn’t clarify how they are refunding passengers. A GoAir spokesperson said the money would be paid to Airports Authority of India.
20/06/11 Sidhartha Roy/Hindustan Times

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Categories: Airports Jun 2011, Indian Aviation- In General Jun 2011