Virgin Australia has stopped issuing customers with credit vouchers or refunds.
Customers received an email from the airline warning it has ‘temporarily paused issuing new travel credits and refunds while we wait for direction from the administrator.’
The pause is designed to protect the administrators from personal liability according to Australian law.
Outstanding refund and credit requests have been logged and will still be vaild – if a new buyer agrees to honour them.
In the meantime all customers awaiting refunds or vouchers are technically unsecured creditors of the company.
"The administrators will be able to provide more certainty on arrangements for those customers in the coming days," a spokesperson for administrator Deloitte said.
Deloitte administrator Vaughan Strawbridge said the credits ‘are still there, they haven’t gone anywhere and are intended to be used in the future.’
"They are going to be an important part of the restructure of the business and an important part of loyalty to Virgin Australia."
Delotte says there are ‘high-quality bidders with fantastic credentials’ with up to 20 entities showing an interest in taking over Virgin.
"We remain confident that our target of achieving a sale by the end of June is achievable," Strawbridge said.
