Trips that have been, or will be taken with, vouchers issued by airlines after successive flight cancellations in this covid-19 phase, will be eligible for reimbursement under the Social Mobility Allowance.(Residents of Madeira)
The guarantee is left by the office of the regional vice-presidency, which explains that “after the trips have been made, passengers, in addition to the documentation that is legally required for the purpose of reimbursement, within the scope of the Social Mobility Subsidy, will have to add a travel voucher or ‘voucher’ that has now been considered eligible as a form of payment for travel ”.
The measure, which results from a series of formal contacts between the vice-presidency of the Regional Government and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Housing, should be communicated, formally, through the General Finance Inspectorate to CTT, which will operationalize this procedure.
“As the vice-presidency warned, the non-acceptance of compensation travel vouchers, delivered by airlines, for the cancellation of flights due to the covid-19, harmed, even more, all the Madeirans who were prevented from traveling, without right the expected and fair reimbursement of the money invested ”, says the executive in the same note.
It is recalled that the cancellation of flights occurring en masse from 13 March, due to the impact of the pandemic, most airlines induced passengers affected to accept reimbursement for the cancellation of trips in the form of a voucher (valid between 12 and 24 months), avoiding the cash refund of the amounts paid.
According to the same source, it is estimated that from March 13 to April 30, around 10,300 Madeirans were compelled to accept these travel reimbursement vouchers issued by airlines, for flights between Madeira and Mainland Portugal and vice versa , in a financial volume of more than two million euros.