Travel agents will receive a partial refund on Air Australia tickets they sold for flights that did not operate.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has reached an agreement with administrators of the failed airline for “processing refund applications” filed by travel agents in BSPlink.
Australian Federation of Travel Agents chief executive Jayson Westbury described it as “very good news” that will bring some relief to retailers who were financially stung by the airline’s collapse.
It comes after lengthy discussions involving AFTA, IATA, administrators KordaMentha, the competition watchdog and state departments of consumer affairs.
Travel Today revealed last week that talks were underway.
Exactly how much will be refunded is unclear. But AFTA warned the refund will bear “no reconciliation to the amount held by IATA as the amount held is the amount that had not been remitted to the airline at the time of the collapse”.
“Therefore all refunds will not be eligible for a 100% refund,” AFTA said. “At this stage it is not known exactly how much in the dollar will be refunded.”
Nevertheless, the federation said any refund was welcome. The agreement avoided all funds being seized by the administrator and distributed among creditors.
Many agents are dealing with consumers direct with some being hit with credit card chargeback costs as they acted as the merchant for Air Australia.
“These BSP funds will go some way to mitigate this loss for agents,” AFTA said. “It will not solve everyone’s problems and it will not get consumers back all that they are owed but it will help.”
