By David Shepardson and Tracy Rucinski
WASHINGTON, June 1 (Reuters) – Two senators on Monday criticized seven main U.S. airways for failing to make all pandemic-related flight credit legitimate indefinitely and vowed to pursue legislative or regulatory actions in response.
Democrats Edward Markey and Richard Blumenthal mentioned the airways commerce group had “refused to supply any dedication to develop money refund insurance policies or get rid of expiration dates for pandemic-related flight credit.”
The lawmakers mentioned the airways “proceed to sit down on greater than $10 billion in unused flight credit and are nonetheless refusing to return shoppers’ hard-earned cash, greater than a 12 months after the pandemic started.”
With out eradicating expiration dates, “your organization could also be encouraging vacationers to fly earlier than they really feel secure boarding a airplane, lest they lose tickets that they’ve already bought,” they added.
On Friday, commerce group Airways for America representing American Airways AAL.O, United Airways UAL.O, Delta Air Traces DAL.N, Southwest Airways LUV.N and others advised the senators in a letter that main U.S. airways issued $12.84 billion in money refunds to clients in 2020 because the coronavirus pandemic upended the journey trade.
The group declined additional remark Monday.
Airways have confronted criticism over their dealing with of redemptions for flights canceled through the pandemic.
Within the letter, reviewed by Reuters, Nicholas Calio, the group’s chief govt, mentioned U.S. airways had maintained a steadfast dedication to the touring public through the pandemic and issued refunds in accordance with all federal legal guidelines and rules.
The money refunds, which accounted for about 20% of airline revenues final 12 months, got here on high of billions of {dollars} of journey credit that at the moment are getting used “at a speedy clip” to guide recent flights, he mentioned.
The redemption of vouchers at present accounted for 10% to 15% of carriers’ month-to-month ticket gross sales and was anticipated to extend in coming months because the pandemic winds down, Calio added.
(Reporting by David Shepardson and Tracy Rucinski, Modifying by Rosalba O’Brien and Richard Pullin)
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