Travel Agents' Association (TAAI) Urges Go First To Process Refunds In Bank Accounts

The Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI) has called upon crisis-hit airline Go First to provide refunds to passengers who have booked tickets amid uncertainty. The refunds should be made from the funds deposited in a credit shell with the airline, according to TAFI. Additionally, the federation has requested that Go First directly credit the ticket refund amount to the agents' bank accounts, as many passengers are seeking refunds.

TAFI, which has more than 1,400 members, wrote to Kaushik Khona, CEO of Go First, said that thousands of tickets must be cancelled as a result of the suspension of flights.

Go First has paused ticket sales until May 15 and cancelled all flights till May 9. Bookings are open on the GoFirst website starting on May 23, although there was no official indication on whether the suspension of ticket sales had been extended beyond May 15.

"Hundreds of travel agents across the country have placed substantial deposits with your airline in a credit shell to be used for immediate and future bookings and which currently remain unutilised," the letter said.

Noting that it won't be possible to issue refunds to the passengers until the airline receives payment, TAFI said that "refunds be effected as a direct credit to the agents' bank accounts, rather than being placed in a credit shell".

The airline was instructed to execute customer refunds in accordance with the timelines set outlined in the applicable regulation on Thursday by the aviation regulator DGCA.

Go First operated 180 to 185 flights daily and carried 30,000 people daily before it ceased operations on May 3.

The Wadia group-owned carrier, which is struggling with a severe cash crunch as a result of the grounding of more than half of its fleet, has initiated voluntary insolvency resolution proceedings. The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has deferred its decision after hearing the argument on Thursday.

Go First's appeal has been contested by aircraft lessors, and many of them have requested that the aircraft they have leased to the airline be deregistered with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).