Airline companies have admitted hundreds of millions of euros worth of airline vouchers remain unused, most issued as recompense on journeys that were never made due to the Covid pandemic.

One of those is IAG, owners of British Airways (BA) and Iberia amongst other airlines, which admitted that around €600million (£533million) in vouchers issued when flights were cancelled were yet to redeemed, while EasyJet’s latest figures indicated it was holding vouchers to a value of €124 (£110million)

The news comes in the same week as BA were taken to court by a passenger who demanded her money back when two flights to Japan were cancelled – the airline offering a refund only in vouchers.

Jennie Barber from Birmingham represented herself in the case, taking BA to court after spending most of 2021 attempting to persuade the company that because Japan didn’t reopen its borders, she was unable to travel where she had intended and the company should issue a cash refund; restrictions on travel to Japan were not lifted until November 2022.

Ms Barber was awarded £2,523 to cover the flights, costs and interest up to the date of the judgment.

A statement issued by BA read: “We were the first UK airline to offer customers the unprecedented flexibility to change their plans during the pandemic by providing them with vouchers for future travel,” and the firm reiterated that customers could use travel vouchers issued during the period up to September 2023.

Both BA and EasyJet have extended the expiry date of their vouchers several times, with BA confirming it was “was always reviewing that” (September expiry date) and that it was sending reminders to customers holding outstanding vouchers.