British Airways Fined Rs 9 Crore by US Govt For Not Providing ‘Timely Refunds’ During Covid

British Airways has been fined $1.1 million (Rs 9 Crore) by the US government after the airliner allegedly failed to pay the refunds for cancelled flights during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The US Department of Transportation said the fine was imposed after the airline did not provide “timely refunds to passengers” for abandoned or rescheduled flights to and from the country, BBC reported.

The transport department said that it received more than 1,200 complains about the airline. The fine is “a strong deterrent to future similar unlawful practices” by BA and other airlines, it added.

The British Airways, however, rejected the claims and said “it acted lawfully at all times”.

According to the US transport department, the airliner website, between March and November 2020, instructed customers to contacted the carrier by phone to discuss refund options, including for flights the carrier had cancelled or were significantly changed.

However, customers were unable to get through to customer service agents when calling the carrier for several months because of inadequate customer phone lines.

“There was also no way to submit a refund request through the carrier’s website during this period,” the department said.

The report further said that along with the 1,200 complaints received by the department, the airline company had received thousands more complaints and refund requests directly from consumers.

The department said the failures “caused significant challenges and delays in thousands of consumers receiving required refunds”.

British Airways responded saying, “We’re very sorry that at the height of the unprecedented pandemic – when we were unfortunately forced to cancel thousands of flights and close some call centres due to government restrictions – our customers experienced slightly longer wait times to reach customer service teams.”

“During this period, we acted lawfully at all times and offered customers the flexibility of rebooking travel on different dates, or claiming a refund if their flights were cancelled,” it added.

The UK airline company is being credited $550,000 (Rs 4.52 Crore) toward the penalty because in 2020 and 2021 it paid more than $40 million in refunds to customers with non-refundable tickets.

This isn’t the first incident where the US department airlines for not issuing timely refunds. Earlier, Chilean airline LATAM was ordered to pay $1 million after it and affiliates delayed refunds.