Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia will refund money to its clients who bought tickets for the flights after June 30 on its Dhaka-Kuala Lumpur route.
The decision on refunding money came nearly a week after the airline announced suspension of flights on the route from July 1 for an indefinite period.
The refunding process will start from this week, said Nafees Mostafa, station manager of the carrier in Bangladesh. The airline will refund the money in three ways.
Firstly, the clients who have booked tickets in advance for flights within February 2012 can travel within June 30 this year.
“In this case, we’ll change the flight schedule to an earlier date on a first-come-first-serve basis for the available seats,” said Mostafa.
Secondly, the carrier will refund the entire booking amount through credit cards or travel agents. For that, travellers have to fill in an online form posted on the carrier’s website.
Thirdly, AirAsia can issue a ‘Credit-Shell’ by which one can get service worth the booking amount from other airlines and travel anywhere they like. Credit-Shell will be valid for three months.
In a message posted on its website yesterday, AirAsia said it will notify all affected passengers through phone call, SMS or email, and they will be given a dedicated hotline along with a unique password.
Meanwhile, confusion and tension went high among thousands of passengers as the airline had declared the suspension without any instructions on how it will repay them.
Moreover, AirAsia has so far no official sales agent in Bangladesh, which helped intensify the confusion.
“Now, we have been instructed from the AirAsia headquarters to inform our clients that we are all set to compensate our clients,” said Mostafa.
For more information, the carrier requested passengers, who have made advanced bookings, to contact its call centres.
This decision calmed the nerves of many like Yasif Ahmed Togor, who planned to travel with a group of cousins and his flight was scheduled in October.
“We were shocked when we heard about the route suspension on Wednesday, and were in dark about how to get back the ticket money,” he said.
“Now, we feel some sort of relief.”
AirAsia launched its Bangladesh operations on March 12, 2009 and started daily passenger flights on the Dhaka-Kuala Lumpur-Dhaka route, which soon become popular among migrant workers and middle-income leisure tourists due to its low fare.
One of the main reasons behind the latest decision of route suspension is the absence of any general sales agent in the country that created a lack of promotional activities, which slowed the profitability of the carrier, insiders said.
Last October, the carrier signed agreement with Tune Aviation Bangladesh Ltd, which is yet to start operation. Insiders claim that the company retreats because of a shift in interest and moves to become a sales agent for another airline.
At present, Biman Bangladesh Airlines, GMG, Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia operates passenger and cargo flights between Malaysia and Bangladesh.
-With The Daily Star input
