Qatar Airways has just given its competitors a real kick from the ass. The Gulf company specified in a press release, Monday, August 17, the amount of reimbursements for plane tickets that it has already made to its customers. Since March, Qatar Airways has already paid more than one billion euros to 600,000 passengers, which is already 96% of customers who requested it.
An approach that takes competing airlines in reverse. On hold for months, forced to cancel thousands of flights, airlines around the world are expected to reimburse their passengers billions. At the end of March, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) assessed the bill for reimbursements for canceled flights for the next three months at $ 35 billion (nearly € 30 billion). An addition that got even tougher in July and August as the borders opened and then closed again depending on the progress or decline of the pandemic.
A “question of survival”
With their cash flow dried up by the almost total stoppage of their activity, airlines, both regular and low cost, are unable to reimburse their passengers whose flights have been canceled, unless they are forced into bankruptcy. For lack of money, they drag their feet to reimburse their customers. This unwillingness comes as no surprise to Alexandre de Juniac, Director General of the International Air Transport Association (Iata): “We are aware of the inconvenience this can represent for passengers, but it is a question of survival for the airlines which have a huge cash problem in front of them. “
At the end of July, the European Bureau of Consumers’ Unions (BEUC) pointed out the most reluctant companies. Aegean, Air France, EasyJet, KLM, Norwegian, Ryanair, TAP or even Transavia are the ones with the most complaints. It must be said that for Air France alone, the total accumulated reimbursements would be around one billion euros.
“They deprive passengers of their right to a refund in the event of a canceled flight and deceive passengers by providing them with incorrect, partial or unclear information on their rights”, lamented Monique Goyens, Director General of BEUC. Rather than repaying their due to passengers, airlines prefer to offer them a credit for a subsequent flight. The European Commission recalled that, despite the crisis, the rights of travelers remained valid. At the beginning of July, it even launched an infringement procedure against ten countries of the Union, including France..
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