Auckland-based Rajinder Singh and Paramjeet Singh are likely to lose thousands of dollars that were spent on buying flights on Hong Kong Airlines and Jet Airways for their journey from Auckland to New Delhi.
They had confirmed bookings to travel to New Delhi via a connecting Jet Airways flight from Hong Kong to New Delhi.
Rajinder Singh blamed the local travel agents who sold him the air ticket for ‘not keeping their promise’.
“They failed to fulfil their commitment. They’d verbally promised me that I’ll be fine but the flights don’t exist anymore,” he said.
“I had my ticket booked for 10th April. Even though they knew that this will happen they still booked my ticket on 6 March.”
Another passenger Paramjeet Singh had a similar nightmare after he couldn’t board a flight to New Delhi leaving him ‘furious’ at the Auckland airport on 2 April.
Rajinder Singh had to pay approximately double the amount to re-book his air travel for 10th April. Source: Supplied
Another Indian family which doesn’t want to be named, told SBS Punjabi that their plans to attend a wedding in India have been ‘ruined’ and they’re also at the verge of losing thousands of dollars to this ‘Jet airways crisis’.
“Our travel agent has filed for a refund but he doesn’t seem too hopeful to get our money back,” said one of the family members.
“We’re told that the airline’s international flights have been severely affected and the company may announce bankruptcy in the coming days…. So we’re not too keen to get our refunds.”
Jaspreet Singh Rajpura who is an owner and operator at the Travel Touch New Zealand travel company told SBS Punjabi that the booking system was still allowing them to book tickets despite these flight cancellations.
Rajinder Singh had his booking confirmed for 10 April to travel to New Delhi via a connecting Jet Airways flight from Hong Kong to New Delhi. Source: Supplied
“It’s a bit chaotic at the moment. The system allowed this booking until the end of March but we’re not taking any chances until we get to know that Jet is fully operational,” he said.
“The passengers who bought tickets with Jet Airways have been misled by many travel agents. Neither they nor Jet Airways have so far given them any information if their money will be refunded.”
Jet Airways, which is grappling with acute financial woes has grounded over three-quarters of its fleet of 119 planes, leading to hundreds of flight cancellations.
India’s Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola said that Jet Airways is currently operating a fleet of 26 planes and the airline right now fulfils the criteria for operating on international routes.
Indian government has now stepped in to save crisis-hit Jet Airways which has been struggling under the weight of debts totalling more than US$1bn (£750m).
News agency Reuters has reported that the government has been asking state-run banks including State Bank of India (SBI) and Punjab National Bank (PNB) to swap its debts to equity and take stakes in Jet Airways.
