MALAPPURAM: Abdul Kalam, 55, who has been working as a pharmacist at a hospital in Abu Dhabi, returned home in Malappuram for a 20-day vacation on February 28. He was supposed to report for work on Friday and had scheduled the travel to Abu Dhabi from Calicut International Airport on an Air India Express flight on Thursday. But, after most of the flight services to Gulf countries including the UAE from India were recently banned, Kalam couldn’t fly back like many other Non-Resident Keralites. Now, he is worried a lot about his job and is running around to get his doubts clarified on various matters related to his travel.
The government authorities are not able to give him a clear picture as to when the airlines will resume flight services from Kerala to the Gulf. Nobody would be able to answer that until the Covid-19 situation improves. He also wants to know how he could get the refund for his ticket on the cancelled flight. “When I tried to contact the airlines over the phone, nobody responded,” Kalam says.
He is worried about the current Covid-19 situation. “My vacation period is over and I need to get back to work immediately. I don’t know when the governments would reinstate the flight services and when I would be able to rejoin my work. I’m also worried that if the Covid 19 situation gets worse in the coming months, the countries will extend the travel ban.”
Kalam contacted his company and informed them about the situation. “The company is yet to respond to the mail. Considering the Covid-19 situation, hopefully, they will not take action against me. Even if I reach the UAE, I will have to stay in self-quarantine for 14 days,” he says.
Not only Kalam, but many NRKs face similar issues because of flight cancellations. “I’ve asked several people about the ticket cancellation and learnt that the airlines have different policies regarding refunding the tickets of cancelled flights,” Kalam adds.Though Air India and Saudia refunded the tickets on their cancelled flights to many passengers, sources say many other airlines are not willing to do so. Some airlines are reissuing the tickets to other dates and some are imposing a big cut on the ticket fare while refunding.
Reissued tickets and refunds
“The people are facing two issues related to the tickets of cancelled flights. Most of the NRKs might not be available to travel on the re-issued dates. Also, the airlines will not allow them to change the name in the tickets reissued. Hence, the reissuing of tickets will not help the NRKs,” said Malabar Development Forum president K M Basheer, who sent a letter in this regard to the chief minister. “The second issue is that some airlines are cutting a big per cent of the ticket fare while refunding. The flights have been cancelled following the unusual situation that exists around world and it is not the passengers’ fault. Considering this fact, governments should intervene and help passengers,” said Basheer.