Emirates President Sir Tim Clark shared an open letter to the carrier’s customers after recent record floods in the UAE that impacted Dubai International Airport and airline operations, leaving flyers stranded in transit areas or en route to the hub.
One of the world’s busiest hubs, flyers could not reach or leave Dubai International Airport (DXB) as the emirate received two years’ worth of rain on 16 April 2024 alone – its heaviest deluge in decades.
Emirates diverted planes on the worst-hit day and was forced to cancel or delay more than 400 flights across the next three days amid staffing and supply shortages at DXB.
Clark apologised to Emirates customers whose travel plans were disrupted and acknowledged the round-the-clock support of the airline’s suppliers and partners.
“We know our response has been far from perfect. We acknowledge and understand the frustration of our customers due to the congestion, lack of information and confusion in the terminals. We acknowledge that the long queues and wait times have been unacceptable,” he wrote.
“We take our commitment to our customers very seriously and we have taken learnings from the last few days to make things right and improve our processes.”
Operationally, this meant EK suspended check-in for Dubai departures, passenger traffic and ticket sales to free up resources to rebook customers and add extra flights.
EK also housed more than 12,000 disrupted passengers in hotels and issued 250,000 meal vouchers as the carrier focused on looking after passengers and resuming scheduled operations.
On Saturday 20 April, EK resumed regular flight schedules with passengers rebooked and a task force assembled to deal with 30,000 pieces of left-behind luggage.
“It will take us some more days to clear the backlog of rebooked passengers and bags, and we ask for our customers’ patience and understanding,” Clark wrote.
“I want to offer, on behalf of myself, and all the teams across Emirates, our apologies to each and every customer affected by this disruption.
“We will continue to work hard to live up to your expectations and to our ‘Fly Better’ brand promise.”
Find out more here.
