Jet Airways’ customers to get ticket refund but partially

International Air Transport Association (IATA) has some good news and bad news for Jet Airways’ customers and travel agents who have been waiting for a refund for the tickets they booked prior to and post the suspension of Jet’s operations on April 17, 2019.

The good news is that Jet’s representatives have evaluated the claims for ticket refunds, according to a letter written by IATA, addressed to travel agents on July 10. The letter has been reviewed by BusinessLine .

The letter stated that a 100 per cent settlement of all refunds up to the date of suspension will be done through the Security Deposit held by IATA.

However, the bad news is that the security deposit “was not sufficient to cover all the remaining refunds that have been approved by Jet Airways in the post-suspension refund process.”

Therefore, IATA will have to prorate the total refund against the net remaining balance withheld, “which means that your Agency will receive approximately eight per cent of the total refunds approved by the airline in this process,” it said in its letter addressed to travel agents.

The refunds that have been approved for processing with the prorated amount are final and will be automatically included in their billing, it said.

Jet Airways was dragged to NCLT in June 2019, over unpaid dues. Under the CIRP process, Jet Airways resolution professional had received over 5081 claims for section ticket refund’ worth ₹3,111 crore of which claims worth ₹1,974 crore were admitted among others.

Sampada Sukhathankar, 24-year old, who had booked her tickets from Dubai to Mumbai in April 2019, via ClearTrip worth ₹14,000 has been waiting desperately and following up with ClearTrip on multiple portals. Speaking to BusinessLine she said, “Honestly, even if I get a mere 8 per cent, though, it is too less, I am happy because something is better than nothing.”

As far as a resolution for Jet is concerned, the airline’s Committee of Creditors has now set a deadline of July 21 for bidders to submit a resolution plan. The earlier date was July 11.

The four finalized bidders included the UK-based financial advisory firm Kalrock Capital, which submitted an expression of interest with Murari Lal Jalan; Canadian entrepreneur Siva Rasiah and Kolkata-based Alpha Airways.

A consortium of Flight Simulation Technique Centre Pvt. Ltd, Mumbai-based Big Charter Pvt. Ltd and Abu Dhabi-based Imperial Capital Investments LLC was the fourth bidder.

Though, according to sources, the dark cloud over Jet’s future have still not cleared out. It looks like Alpha Airways and Siva Rasiah have backed out. Whereas, the consortium of FSTC and Imperial Capital have hit a roadblock over investment issues.

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