HUNDREDS of thousands of holidaymakers could be in line for refunds as an investigation is launched into airlines refusal to pay out cash for flights cancelled due to to Covid.
Airlines are being investigated by the competition watchdog over concerns they breached consumer rights by failing to offer cash refunds for flights passengers could not take amid the pandemic.
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The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it will look at whether airlines continued to operate flights despite people being unable lawfully to travel.
It said that in some cases where flights were not cancelled, customers were told to rebook or offered a voucher rather than a refund.
Andrea Coscelli, chief executive of the CMA, said: “We will be carefully analysing all the evidence to see whether any airlines breached consumers’ legal rights by refusing people cash refunds for flights they could not lawfully take.
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“We recognise the continued pressure that businesses are currently facing but they have a responsibility to treat consumers fairly and abide by their legal obligations.”
The CMA said it will write to “a number of airlines” to request information about their approaches to refunds for passengers prevented from flying by lockdown restrictions.
It will analyse the evidence before deciding whether to launch enforcement action against individual carriers.
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The watchdog will work closely with aviation regulator the Civil Aviation Authority during its investigation.
Rory Boland, Which? Travel Editor, said: “Airlines have often put customers in an impossible situation by operating flights during lockdown restrictions and refusing to offer cash refunds to people who cannot lawfully travel – so it is right that the CMA has stepped in to investigate and it should take strong action, where appropriate.
“We expect the hundreds of thousands of people who were simply following government rules by not taking flights to be issued refunds or given the option of a refund, as a result of this investigation.”
Yesterday, LoveHolidays was ordered to repay £18million to 44,000 customers by the CMA.
In July, the Civil Aviation Authority said that Jet2 was the only British carrier “consistently processing cash refunds quickly” with “only a small backlog of refund requests”.
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