Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Nov 15: The US has ordered Air India, which is owned by the Tata group, to pay a staggering USD 121.5 million in refunds and USD 1.4 million in penalties for extreme delays in giving refunds to passengers as a result of flight cancellations or changes, mostly during the pandemic, according to officials.
According to the US Department of Transportation, Air India is one of the six airlines that have agreed to pay back a total of more than USD 600 million.
Officials stated that the Department of Transportation policy, which requires airlines to legally refund tickets in the event of flight cancellation or change, conflicts with Air India’s “refund on request” policy.
An official examination revealed that Air India processed more than half of the 1,900 refund complaints submitted to the Department of Transportation for flights that the carrier cancelled or materially modified in more than 100 days.
Information on how long it took Air India to handle refund requests made directly by passengers who filed complaints and asked for refunds was not available to the agency.
“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 received fines in addition to Air India are Frontier, TAP Portugal, Aero Mexico, EI AI, and Avianca.
