CebuPac says it has refunded 50% of flight cancellation requests amid COVID-19

Budget carrier Cebu Pacific on Thursday said it has already refunded half of requests received in relation to COVID-related flight cancellations.

In a statement, Cebu Pacific said that to date it has refunded over P2.4 billion worth of booking cancellations related to COVID-19. The amount is equivalent to 50% of all the refund requests the airline has received.

“We remain committed to our customers to complete pending refunds, and will update them once these have been processed. We are currently halfway through refund requests filed last April,” Cebu Pacific said.

Local carriers earlier explained that it's taking more time to process air ticket refunds as volume of applications piled up due to frequent flight cancellations.

“We understand how challenging this whole situation is, and we sincerely apologize for the delay,” Cebu Pacific said.

“At present, refunds may take up to six months to process from the time the request was filed. We thank our guests for their patience and understanding as we continue to enhance our processes for this to be resolved soonest,” it said.

Tourism Congress of the Philippines president Jose Clemente III earlier said that tickets booked through travel agencies “have been slow to be processed for refunds, whereas tickets booked directly to the airlines are being processed and released.”

Cebu Pacific explained that the tourism and aviation industries have been among the worst hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The airline said it is only able to operate 10% of its pre-COVID network.

“Since the start of this pandemic, we have received an unprecedented number of refund requests due to the flight cancellations brought about by the lockdown,” it said.

“Our refund process then was originally not designed to handle this volume of requests, and this resulted in a backlog. We have since then revamped our procedures in order to address this,” it added. —Ted Cordero/KBK, GMA News