DGCA directs airlines to stop selling tickets for flights after May 4 till govt decides on flight resumption

NEW DELHI: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has directed airlines to immediately stop selling tickets for flights in the post lockdown period, which for now ends on May 3, and to do so only after a decision on resuming commercial passenger operations is taken. This means no future bookings can now be made till flight resumption is announced.
The regulator issued a circular Sunday, saying “it has been noted airlines have started booking tickets for journeys from May 4…. no decision to commence operation of domestic/ International flights from May 4, 2020, has been taken yet. In view of this, all airlines are hereby directed to refrain from booking tickets as described above. Airlines shall be given sufficient notice and time for restarting of operations.”
The DGCA order came as private airlines continued booking tickets from May 4 despite aviation minister H S Puri ‘advising’ airlines in a late Saturday night tweet to take bookings only after the government decides on re-opening of domestic or international flights. Only Air India stopped taking bookings on Sunday but private airlines, in the absence of a formal order from aviation authorities (a tweet is not a formal notification), continued selling tickets for flights after May 4.

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With the regulatory circular issued “ for strict compliance by all schedule Indian and foreign airlines”, the same should hopefully stop now.
The directive was issued under section 8A of the Aircraft Act 1934 which states: “If the Central Government is satisfied that India or any part thereof is threatened with an outbreak of any dangerous epidemic disease, and that the ordinary provisions of the law for the time being in force are insufficient for the prevention of danger arising to the public health through the introduction or spread of the disease by the agency of aircraft, the Central Government may take such measures as it deems necessary to prevent such danger.” This is the first time this clause has been used to stop all future bookings for now.
Titled “booking of airline ticket for journey post lockdown during the current Covid-19”, DGCA’s Sunday circular says the previous orders suspending schedule commercial passenger flights during lockdown period did not have any “direction/clearance, which allows airlines to start ticket bookings for journeys to be undertaken from May 4.”
Minister Puri’s Saturday night Tweet was in response to criticism over past few weeks from passengers over not getting full refunds from airlines for flights cancelled during the lockdown. Cash-strapped airlines have been asking affected passengers to fly anytime upto a year in the money paid and not seek a refund. Those insisting on a refund are made to face steep cancellation charges.
The aviation ministry tried to douse this fire with a partial-relief order, asking airlines to give refunds only to those who booked during the lockdown to fly during the lockdown. This, in turn, led to more anger as those who booked on and before March 24 for flights between March 25 and May 3 (the lockdown for now) would still not get full refunds.
“Airlines are in a near-bankrupt conditions. So they open bookings from the next day when lockdown was/is supposed to end (April 15 and now May 4) to keep getting some cash flow from those buying tickets. This despite the fact that no one knows when flights will resume,” said a source.
While several crores of passengers’ booking among is stuck with airlines, the belated aviation ministry order to stop ticket sales will mean more passengers don’t get stuck too.

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