Travel Agency MisterFly Slams Airlines for Delayed or Denied Refunds
Skift Take
Everyone in the travel industry is frustrated right now with much of the world frozen up. But Nicolas Brumelot, the co-founder and president of travel startup Misterfly, speaks for many agencies frustrated by alleged delays in refunds by some airlines.
MisterFly President Nicolas Brumelot on Friday warned in an interview that many of his fellow travel agencies and tour operators faced imminent bankruptcy, due to the devastating impacts of the novel coronavirus on the industry. As Skift reported on March 25, many corporate travel advisors have criticized the refund procedures of global airline trade lobby International Air Transport Association (IATA).
MisterFly, an online travel agency based in Paris, had been a rising star since 2018, when Skift named it one of 20 young venture-backed companies to watch.
Now Brumelot is criticizing what he called unreasonable and unfair demands regarding airline payments, especially those related to canceled flights.
Many member airlines have decided to ignore European regulations requiring cash refunds and are instead issuing non-refundable "credit notes," Brumelot said.
Air Europa and TAP Air Portugal did this in recent months. Emirates followed on March 26.
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When we asked IATA about Brumelot's complaints, a spokesperson said: "While IATA cannot address specific situations, we recognize that these are extraordinary circumstances facing this industry and have taken steps to provide our travel agent partners with additional flexibility in terms of remittances, financial assessments and in exceptional situations, alternatives to bank guarantees." Brumelot said his startup could weather the storm. But the travel bans and economic fallout of coronavirus have c