Desperate Go Airlines passengers make calls, write mails to NCLT for refunds
Desperate for refunds of their ticket prices, passengers of Go Airlines have been sending mails and making phone calls to the offices of National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). The office of NCLT had to issue an advisory asking the public not to send inquiries to NCLT.
The advisory informed the public that all the refund related claims have to be submitted to resolution professional –Shailendra Ajmera. The advisory says that all the refund claims should be filed as per the law.
All the refunds for cancelled tickets of the passengers will be treated as operational credits and accordingly will have to file with the resolution professions, who after verification will admit or reject the claims.
It must be noted that Go Airlines operational creditors — which include individual ticket holders, agents/aggregators/payment gateways, vendor and lessors – have so far submitted claims of Rs 19,428 crore. But the resolution professional is yet to admit the claims.
Surprisingly, none of the operational creditors’ claims have been admitted yet by the resolution professional of Go Airlines. Even the claims of workers and employees (Rs 65.65 crore) have not been admitted yet, according to the updates in the website of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI), the insolvency regulator.
Given the large number of claimants involved (3,500 in total), the verification process could be taking time. Also, the list of claims was last updated on 8 June 2023.
Resolution professional of Go Airlines Shailendra Ajmera has recently released an FAQ especially meant for operational creditors who are individual ticket holders seeking refund, travel agents and aggregators, vendors and lessors.
As per the FAQ, only those individuals who have directly booked tickets through Go Airlines website/app or purchased a ticket directly from the counter should submit their claims. Those who have booked tickets indirectly through travel agents or aggregator websites (like MMT, Goibibo, Cleartrip, Easytrip, Travel boutique, Air IQ, Paytm, IRCTC etc.) need not file claims with Go First directly. Travel agents and aggregator websites will file consolidated claims on their behalf.
Out of the Rs 19,428 crore claims submitted by operational creditors, lessors have submitted claims of Rs 2,660 crore.
It must be noted that Go Airlines, which filed for insolvency on 2 May 2023, suspended all operations from 3rd May. All the scheduled flights remained cancelled till 10 July 2023.
Also Read: Over Rs 19,000-crore claims submitted by Go Airlines ticket holders, agents, vendors and lessors
