Only 'non-refundable' air tickets with old Rs.500 and Rs.1000 notes

New Delhi: Ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a sudden address to the nation on Tuesday announced the demonetisation of higher currency notes, people have been lining up at airports to buy tickets from their stack of Rs.500 and Rs.1000 notes. Thousands began assembling at airport counters to get rid of their higher currency notes which led to all round chaos and inconveniences at various airports. But on Thursday evening, airlines announced that tickets being bought using old notes will be strictly non-refundable and will not be cancelled. Vistara airlines and SpiceJet confirmed the move by tweeting about it.

Important information w.r.t announcement by Govt. of India relating to INR 500 and INR 1,000 currency notes. pic.twitter.com/es0FTIGJJb — Vistara (@airvistara) November 10, 2016

As per DGCA all tickets booked in 500 & 1000 INR denominations from 10 Nov’16 Midnight till 11 Nov’16, 2359 hrs are Non refundable.

— SpiceJet (@flyspicejet) November 10, 2016

People jostled to buy airline tickets because airline counters at airports were among the few places to accept high denomination currency.  Reportedly, airline officials said there has been a significant jump in over-the-counter booking of flight tickets since the government announced the demonetisation. It is assumed that people were booking travel tickets in advance only to cancel them later and have their money refunded in their accounts. It is being suspected that air ticket booking was actually a means for people to convert their unaccounted money into legal transactions. Amid such concerns, aviation regulator DGCA directed airlines to ensure that tickets issued using the withdrawn Rs.500 and Rs.1000 notes directly from counters at airports are "non-refundable". With these tickets being made non-cancellable and non-refundable, only people who genuinely need to travel will now line up at airports . The demonetised currency notes can be used to make bookings at airport ticket counters until 23:59 hours on November 11.