The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the schedule of airlines and thousands of passengers remained with bought tickets that they could not use. The airlines formulated a number of options.

In a response to an inquiry made by IPN, “Fly One” says that it proposed three alternatives to the affected passengers: free modification of the flight date based on the timetable of available flights, vouchers to refund 120% of the ticket price and refunding of the price of the ticket according to the tariff.

“Currently, most of the passengers ask for vouchers to the value of 120% of the price of the ticket for the annulled or modified flight because “Fly One” is the only company in the Republic of Moldova that implemented the system for reimbursing the price of ticket through 120% vouchers. The passenger can ask for a refund during a year of the ticket purchase date. Compared with summer, the number of requests decreased owing to the partial resumption of flights,” stated the operator.

Since the pandemic started, the airline made maximum efforts for each employee to remain part of “Fly One” and thus managed to deal with most of the requests from passengers.

“Air Moldova” also proposed several options. The passengers who had tickets, but the flights were annulled can modify them during a year of the purchase date. For example, if the person bought the ticket on March 20, 2020, he/she by March 20, 2021 must inform about the period when they intend to fly, mandatorily until the next flying season – October 24, 2021.

If the passenger knows that he/she will not go to the country for which the ticket was bought, they can ask for a voucher whose value is equal to the value of the ticket and later can buy a ticket for another destination with this voucher. The price of the new ticket should be close to the sum paid for the ticket for the cancelled flight as the operator will not reimburse the difference, the press service of “Air Moldova” explained when contacted by IPN for details.

The source also said that owing to the situation caused by the pandemic, the company is experiencing a serious crisis. A smaller number of employees work now and deal primarily with the exchange of tickets. As the number of requests is high, the clients receive responses through email not swiftly. No passenger will yet remain with the ticket in the hand.