Covid: Over £3 billion paid back to UK passengers following flight cancellations
That’s more than 95 per cent of the total refunds due, according to the country’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)
For the UK commercial aviation industry, Covid-19’s impact on operations over the past 12 months or so saw over one billion flights cancelled – affecting some 29 million passengers, CAA’s Chief Richard Moriarty says. Moriarty notes that refunds totalling £3.09 billion have now been paid back to customers.
“This is an enormously important issue for consumers," said Moriarty. "In the early days of the pandemic, airlines were overwhelmed; that’s one of the reasons we took action.” However, Moriarty does acknowledge that there are still customers (‘more complicated cases’) waiting for their money back.
In early January, the CAA extended the deadline for refund credit notes because it said that the Air Travel Trust recognised it is possible that some consumers might not be able to redeem their refund credit notes before the original date.