The British airlines’ industry has been widely criticised for taking too long to refund passengers for cancelled or delayed flights since March, The National reported.
Airlines in the UK will be investigated over whether they broke consumer laws by failing to offer passengers cash refunds during the pandemic.
Over the pandemic period and lockdowns, many passengers in the UK have been offered vouchers instead of cash refunds instead of full refunds. Such cases will be investigated over whether they broke consumer laws by failing to offer passengers cash refunds during the COVID-19 outbreak.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), a watchdog, plans to determine whether the UK airlines breached the legal rights of customers by failing to offer cash refunds for flights that couldn’t be taken.
The investigation will consider situations where airlines continued to operate flights despite people being unable lawfully to travel for non-essential purposes in England or abroad, for example during the 2nd lockdown across the UK last month.
“The CMA is aware that, in some cases where flights were not cancelled, customers were not offered refunds even though they could not lawfully travel,” the watchdog’s statement reads.
The most troubling moment in all those cases is many passengers of the British airlines were offered the option to rebook or to receive a voucher instead of cash, said CMA.
