Coronavirus: Airline refunds ‘still too slow’ despite warning

Airlines are still taking too long to refund passengers whose holidays have been cancelled due to the coronavirus crisis, consumer group Which? has said. Last month, the airline regulator said it was "not satisfied" that Virgin Atlantic, Ryanair or Tui were processing refunds quickly enough. And now Which? claims that, despite the intervention from the Civil Aviation Authority, refunds are still too slow. It says the airlines are "falling short" of promises made to the CAA. In a report, the regulator said Ryanair was taking 10 weeks or even longer to process refunds and asked the airline to reduce that time. But Which? says that, despite promises, the airline is still taking months to process some refunds. Ryanair said it had issued more than GBP670m in refunds and had cleared over 90% of its claims backlog. Virgin Atlantic, meanwhile, made customers wait up to 120 days for a refund, the CAA said in its July report. It was the only airline threatened with action by the regulator, which reviewed the refund waiting times of 18 major airlines. But Which? said it had heard from two passengers who had been waiting for 130 days for a refund for flights cancelled in March. It said it had also heard from a Tui customer who had still not received a refund for travel cancelled in April.<br/>