Brussels Airlines has committed to finalising reimbursements related to mass cancellations in the context of the health crisis by the end of October.
The airline, however, still has a lot of work ahead of it, since to date only 31% of refund requests have been processed, despite receiving claims worth 122 million euros.
Since the beginning of the crisis, the company has had to cancel more than 36,000 flights, which in three months has led to more than one million calls to the Brussels Airlines service centre. By way of comparison, in 2019, Brussels Airlines handled 400,000 calls.
"Unfortunately, in this context, with the number of agents increased to its high level and a call centre operational 24/7, the airline was unable to offer its customers the level of service they are used to at Brussels Airlines, especially with regard to long waiting times for claims," the company explained.
Brussels Airlines said it has been working on a solution to speed up the refund processing process and now processes several thousand refunds every day.
"We are well aware that the last few months have been extremely difficult for our passengers affected by schedule changes or flight cancellations," explained CEO Dieter Vranckx. "We would like to express our sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused by an overloaded call centre and delays in response times, particularly in the processing of refunds. We can reassure our customers that every passenger who is entitled to a refund and who has made a request will be refunded within the next few weeks."
The Brussels Times
