Mumbai, January 23
In a big relief to air travellers, domestic airlines have agreed to refund passengers all costs, barring the base fare, if a non-refundable ticket is cancelled. However, passengers can avail themselves of this facility only if they get their tickets cancelled two hours before to the flight departure.

“At a working group meeting held recently, the airlines have agreed to refund passengers for non-refundable ticket as well. The Civil Aviation Secretary has already sent instructions to all airlines in this regard,” Air Passenger Association of India (APAI) president D Sudhakar Reddy said.

The decision was taken at a meeting of a working group of the Civil Aviation Economic Advisory Council that is going into issues relating to bringing transparency in fixing airfares and protecting consumer interests.

Reddy, a member of the group representing passengers’ interests, said the airlines had also been told to appoint a nodal officer to specifically deal with such issues.

Apart from the base fares, fuel surcharge, passenger service fee, user or airport development fee and taxes are the other components that an airline charges from the passengers. As per the decision, all these components would be refunded in case of cancellation of a ticket.

The six-member working group, having representatives from airlines, DGCA, consumer groups, industry experts, held a meeting with the Aviation Economic Advisory Council on January 18 in New Delhi.

Besides passengers, the group comprises representatives of travel agents, Air India and no-frill carrier IndiGo. — PTI