Tens of thousands of customers are being robbed of almost all of their refunds for flights cancelled by Norwegian during the pandemic, according to an updated restructuring plan from the debt-ridden Norwegian airline.
Norwegian's refund freeze covers approximately 26,000 direct bookings for a total of tens of millions of kronor, where customers now have to settle for getting back 5 percent of what they paid for canceled trips.
”This means that these customers receive the same terms as other unsecured creditors and are thus only entitled to a percentage of their original claim,” says Norwegian's Head of Communications Charlotte Holmbergh Jacobsson.
A direct booking – which is made by a customer with Norwegian without intermediaries – can apply to tickets for several people and, according to the Ritzau news agency, around 34,000 customers are affected.
”After we started the reconstruction, there are limitations on what we can do,” says Holmbergh Jacobsson.
”We are in the process of reconstruction and we have to abide by the existing rules of the game,” she adds.
Affected customers have made direct bookings for flights with Norwegian before November 18, 2020, when the company entered the restructuring process. Refund requests received after November 18 are being processed as usual and in a sequential order, according to Norwegian.
When the reconstruction began last year, Norwegian had paid back a total of approximately 98 percent of the refund claims received due to canceled flights since March 2020 - a total of over SEK 6 billion.
”That's more than most airlines,” says Holmbergh Jacobsson.
TT: Can you compensate the affected customers in any other way?
”"It's something we have to look at, of course. Customers are incredibly important. They're what we make a living from. So it's clear that this feels very sad that it's now a couple of percent who only get a small part of their money back. We really tried to come up with a solution where customers would get their money back, but unfortunately it didn't work out according to the reconstruction process."”
Norwegian, which was a leading player in the Nordic market before the pandemic, has for some time now only been flying with eight aircraft and only on Norwegian domestic routes.
”"We see positive trends in bookings going forward and we plan to resume traffic in Sweden in April. But it is clear that there may be changes and new restrictions, so it is very difficult to predict," says Holmbergh Jacobsson.
In the short term, Norwegian hopes to have around 50 aircraft in service, with a focus on the Nordics and Europe. However, how quickly that level can be reached will depend on how the pandemic and restrictions develop.
Before the pandemic, Norwegian had 140 aircraft in its fleet and also flew long-haul flights to North and South America, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
Source: TT
