India's airline passengers continued to face refund issues even as fewer cancellations were reported on the second day of air travel after a gap of two months.
More than 41,000 air travellers were able to reach their destinations on Tuesday, Civil Aviation Minister Hardip Puri tweeted. Travel agents BloombergQuint spoke with said Tuesday saw fewer cancellations than Monday. While no official number was released, PTI had reported quoting unnamed officials that 600 flights were cancelled on the first day.
EaseMyTrip sold 4,708 tickets for May 26, of which 345 cancelled on Day 2, that compared with 620 cancellations from 5,900 tickets on May 25, according to founder Nishant Pitti. Due to last-minute changes and announcement by states, Air India saw most cancellations at 10 percent of scheduled departures, he said.
Airlines are giving return in digital wallets but Air India has taken back access to apply for refunds and are only asking agents to apply individually, Pitti said.
“It is crazy right now, passengers are going to the airport and then realising that their flights are getting cancelled and others were asked to wait for hours at the airport,” Sameer Karnani, owner of Arunodaya Travels, said. The Mumbai-based travel agent, whose Rs 2.2 crore is already stuck with airlines in advance payments and refunds, hasn't seen much relief due to opening up of flight operations so far.
The cancellations occurred due to last-minute changes by states, he said. They stem from changes in the operations due to last-minute restrictions by states due to rise in the number of Covid-19 cases in the country.
West Bengal on Sunday night ordered no flight operations till May 28, Andhra Pradesh resumed operations only on May 26 at a limited scale. Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu allowed flights to enter from Monday but with restrictions such as 25 arrivals and 25 departures. Chennai, however, put no limits on the departures.
Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Bihar, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, and Assam are among states that additional requirement for arriving passengers. These include Covid-19 tests to putting arriving passengers in mandatory institutional or home quarantine.
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