Johannesburg - Consumers who paid cash for their 1Time air tickets may have to wait a little longer for a refund, the airline said on Monday.
“We are in a liquidation process, it may take a longer time for the liquidators to complete their work,” said 1Time spokeswoman Refilwe Masemola.
“With most liquidations, most creditors get a portion of the rand back from the company.”
She said people who had bought their tickets with cash would find it hard to get their money back.
“Any money that was paid in cash is considered belonging to the company. That is the money that was physically left with the company when it went into liquidation.”
However, the money paid through a credit card was with the bank could be recovered, she said.
“Since the company applied for business rescue we've always encouraged people to use credit cards,” Masemola said.
ABSA, Nedbank, First National Bank and Standard Bank had announced it would reimburse passengers who paid with their cards, The Star reported.
Scores of passengers were left stranded when the low-cost airline announced on Friday that it had applied for liquidation and stopped all operations.
It had about R320 million in short-term debt and had been in negotiations with creditors since March.
Meanwhile, the SA Broadcasting Corporation reported that the National Consumer Commission was considering probing if 1Time sold tickets just hours before it applied
NCC acting head Ebrahim Mohammed said it were looking into whether 1Time misled passengers.
“We are trying to get exactly what the situation is. We don't know what 1Time has to say with regards to reimbursing consumers, especially those who had already paid for their tickets in cash,” he told SABC. - Sapa