Airlines and Hotels Owe Passengers Over 600b Tomans After Flight Cancellations

TEHRAN (Iran News) Hormatollah Rafiei told IRNA that Turkey and the UAE are among the most popular destinations for Iranian travelers, with about 70 flights per week to Turkey and a similar number to the Persian Gulf countries. However, he noted, more than 250 flights abroad were canceled during the two weeks following the attack by the Zionist regime.

“As a result of these cancellations, over 30,000 travelers were unable to take their trips, and airlines and hotels now owe them more than 600 billion tomans,” Rafiei added.

He also stated that over 100,000 Iranian travelers who had already left the country for religious and leisure trips returned home by land, thanks to open land borders. “About 90% of these travelers came back overland, and the money they had paid for their flights should now be refunded,” he said. Rafiei thanked travel agency managers for taking responsibility and ensuring passengers returned to their destinations.

Before the attack, around 250,000 travelers had taken domestic tours by air to cities like Mashhad, Shiraz, and Isfahan. Rafiei explained that while some of them chose to stay due to the situation, others returned to Tehran by ground transportation. Since domestic travel costs less than international trips, refunds did not significantly strain the government or the private sector.

Rafiei pointed out that after the outbreak of war and the cancellation of flights, the government issued a directive asking travel agencies to refund customers. “This directive should have been addressed to airlines and accommodation providers because travel agencies are merely intermediaries between passengers and service providers,” he said. Unless these companies and booking platforms transfer funds back to travel agencies, the agencies cannot return money to travelers.

He stressed that the cost of canceled tickets must be promptly refunded by airlines through agencies and platforms. “Unfortunately, whenever the country faces a crisis, the government tries to deflect responsibility by issuing a directive, leaving travel agencies and citizens to face major challenges,” Rafiei noted.

He explained that international travelers often need to obtain a visa before booking hotels and flights. “Once a traveler gets a visa, the visa fee cannot be refunded,” he said. Therefore, while airlines must return ticket costs and hotels must return accommodation fees, an impractical government directive requiring travel agencies to refund passengers without first recovering funds from service providers creates room for abuse and harms travelers.

Rafiei reiterated that travel agencies merely sell flight tickets and accommodation—they do not own the services. “Unless airlines and hotels return the money to travel agencies, the agencies cannot refund travelers,” he said.

So far, he added, about 90% of the ticket costs for canceled international flights have not been refunded to passengers. Rafiei called on the government to compel airlines and hotels to process these payments promptly. He also urged the Civil Aviation Organization to force airlines to return passengers’ money and asked provincial cultural heritage offices to demand that accommodation providers and hotel operators transfer funds back to travel agencies.

Following the start of the war, a special task force meeting was held with officials from the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Rafiei noted, but private sector tourism representatives were not invited to discuss the challenges.

“Refunding passengers must not be delayed, as this only benefits airlines and infringes on people’s rights,” he concluded.