CCPA helps recover ₹1,453 cr dues from travel aggregators

livemint.com:

₹1,453 crore for air tickets booked during the covid-19 pandemic from travel aggregators, including Yatra, MakeMyTrip, ClearTrip, EaseMyTrip, Ixigo and Thomas Cook, two persons aware of the matter said. Only ₹3 crore remains to be refunded after CCPA, a regulatory authority of the consumer affairs ministry, took up this issue of long delays in refunds to consumers by travel aggregators, the persons cited above said. The travel aggregators on their part have been blaming airlines, the first among the two persons cited above said.

The CCPA engaged with travel platforms in 2021 and issued notices against six online travel aggregators—EaseMyTrip, Yatra Online, MakeMyTrip, HappyEasyGo, ClearTrip and Ixigo under the Consumer Protection Act 2019. In the notices, the CCPA clearly alerted travel aggregators to refund booking amounts to consumers affected by covid-19, the first person said. In addition to ticket booking aggregators, notices were also issued to tour and travel agencies such as Thomas Cook, Neem Holidays, Mango Holidays, Veena World and Kesari Tours, asking them to refund fares for cancelled flights, the second person said.

Getting travel aggregators to refund money was not easy and it took around two years to process the refunds, the persons cited above said. Email queries sent to Yatra, EaseMyTrip, MakeMyTrip, Ixigo, Thomas Cook, Kesari Tours, Veena World, Mango Holidays and Neem Holidays remained unanswered at press time. Queries sent to the consumer affairs secretary and ministry spokesperson also remained unanswered.

The CCPA issued notices to the six online travel platforms on 9 March 2021. As of 5 March 2024, five travel aggregators had refunded ₹1,453 crore, with ₹3 crore still pending from Yatra. Yatra has