IndiGo To Refund All Credit Shells By January 31

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India's largest airline IndiGo has said it will refund all credit shells by January 31, 2021, in another indication that airlines are beginning to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement on December 7, IndiGo said it has already processed close to Rs 1,000 crore of refunds, about 90 percent of the total amount it owes customers.

“The sudden onset of Covid-19 and the resulting lockdown, brought our operations to a complete halt by the end of March of this year. As our incoming cash flow dried up, we were unable to immediately process refunds for cancelled flights and had to create credit shells for the refunds that were due to our customers," CEO Ronojoy Dutta said.

But now with a steady increase in demand for air travel, Dutta added, the airline has been refunding the credit shell amount.

In an earlier statement to Moneycontrol in September, an IndiGo spokesperson had said its credit shell balance had reduced to almost 25-30 percent.

The pandemic and the eventual lockdown had seen the government suspending flights in March. But instead of refunding the tickets, airlines had begun a practice to keep these amount in a credit shell. Passengers could use these credit shells to book on a later date, but with certain restrictions.

This had led to an outcry, with customers taking to social media platforms to air their ire. Later, the Supreme Court took notice of the issue and laid down guidelines for airlines to refund the money.