Highlights:

• Cancellation rules and policies for IndiGo, SpiceJet, and Vistara
• Aviation industry to incur loses between $ 3 billion and $ 3.6 billion
• All flights, either domestic or international to remain suspended until 11:50 PM of 3^rd May

In an attempt to contain the novel Coronavirus in India, the government decided to extend the lockdown across the country till the 3^rd of May 2020. As on the 14^th April 2020, the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi announced an extension of the lockdown, the Centre suspended all domestic and international passenger flights.

In a statement, the ministry of civil aviation said, “All domestic and international scheduled Airlines operations shall remain suspended till 11.59 pm of 3rd May 2020,”.

If a person has booked the flight ticket(s) between April 15^th and May 3^rd, he/ she may not get a cash refund for the cancelled flight due to the order from the government. However, the airlines are offering free rescheduling of flight tickets instead of the refund in cash.

Via Twitter, the three Indian Airlines – IndiGo, SpiceJet, and Vistara – informed its customers that they can reschedule their flight tickets to another date without paying anything extra.

Let us see how it will work:

IndiGo

The airline informed that the amount of the ticket will be considered as credit shell balance which the flyer will be able to use in the future. IndiGo, on Twitter, wrote, “You ticket amount is protected in the form of a credit shell in the PNR, which will be shared with you in the next 5-7 days,”.

The Passenger will be able to use the credits within 1 year from the date they were issued. The flyer will be able to retrieve the itinerary from “Edit Booking” option on the company’s website to view their credit shell balance.

#6ETravelAlert: Please refer https://t.co/G05fibm3Ec for information on credit shell. #StaySafe #StayHealthy #SkyWillBeBlueAgain #StayingParkedStayingSafe pic.twitter.com/xJ2uHFNMmW

— IndiGo (@IndiGo6E) April 14, 2020

SpiceJet

SpiceJet said to all of its customers that the use of shell balance to book tickets until 28^th of February 2021. You can see the credit amount under the “Manage Booking” section on the website of SpiceJet. If the user books a new flight, these credits will be redeemable for that flight ticket.

pic.twitter.com/gSzbl1x3BV

— SpiceJet (@flyspicejet) April 14, 2020

Vistara

Vistara said that the company will get in touch with the customer who booked the flights with them for the extended lockdown period and that the flyers will be able to reschedule their flights until the 31^st December 2020. However, according to a leading news agency, Vistara customers will have to pay the fare difference.

#ImportantUpdate pic.twitter.com/aikdfIBq8e

— Vistara (@airvistara) April 14, 2020

Most of the airlines started taking new booking for flights scheduled to fly after 14^th April, which was the last date of the lockdown period, for the domestic flights. It was only Air India that had suspended the sale of tickets for both domestic and international flights till the 30^th of April.

The Indian aviation industry is expected to incus losses worth between $ 3 billion to $ 3.6 billion in the June quarter alone due to the novel Coronavirus, as shared by Capa India, a consultancy firm.