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United States
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ARC processed more than USD1 billion in Covid-19 refunds
Despite airlines’ sketchy record of issuing refunds for cancelled flights, Airlines Reporting Corp. (ARC) says it has processed more than $1 billion in airline cash refunds to U.S. travel agencies.
From 9 March to 12 July, 2020, more than $745 million in refunds was paid in cash, with the remainder given as credit toward agency sales.
ARC says that represents a 558% increase in cash refund volume compared to the same period last year.
Once the pandemic began to affect flight operations, ARC adapted its settlement schedule to streamline and speed up processing of refunds and credits.
"In a time of unprecedented refund activity facing the travel community, we had to ensure ARC’s systems could continue to support reliable, timely refund payments for our customers," said Lauri Reishus, ARC’s COO.
"ARC made it a priority to ensure agencies received the full balance of their cash refunds on time and in full, maintaining a constant flow of liquidity between airlines and travel agencies."
Jeannine Hankinson, ARC’s managing director of operations and customer experience said: "ARC’s participating airlines have been tremendously supportive of their travel agency partners during this crisis."
"The collaboration we have experienced with our customers during this volatile time demonstrates our industry’s resilience."
by Ray Montgomery, US editor
TravelMole Editorial Team
Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.
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