Following the catastrophic rainstorms that closed Dubai International Airport last week, the President of Emirates Airline has issued an open letter to customers offering “our most sincere apologies to every customer who has had their travel plans disrupted during this time.”
The storm that hit Dubai last Tuesday resulted in travel chaos for thousands of passengers whose flights were cancelled over Tuesday and the following days. The airport itself was therefore full of passengers who should have departed, demanding news, refreshments and temporary accommodation. Reports began emerging of a lack of information and tempers running dangerously high. The severe floods killed at least one person, striking access roads around the airport as well as roads to more remote areas, meaning not only would-be flyers, but staff, from baggage handlers to pilots, could not safely reach their place of work.
Dubai is the world’s busiest international airport and Emirates carries more intercontinental passengers than any other airline, making the situation even more of a nightmare, with a ripple effect round the world, as fliers due to connect in Dubai or elsewhere found themselves stranded, unable to make onward flights. Of course, staff members too were also stuck in the wrong airports, unable to transfer to where they should be.
Worse still, according to aviation procedures, passengers who have been waiting for days are, perhaps counter-intuitively, often not at the front of the queue when it comes to getting on alternative flights. Those with immediate bookings are dealt with first. Amounts of compensation and access to accommodation and alternative flights are dependent on the jurisdiction flyers find themselves in when a problem occurs.
Emirates’ President, Sir Tim Clark, addressed the situation directly in his letter, telling those affected: “We diverted dozens of flights to avoid the worst of the weather on Tuesday, and over the next 3 days we had to cancel nearly 400 flights and delay many more, as our hub operations remained challenged by staffing and supply shortages. We were clear on our 2 priorities: Look after our customers who have been impacted by the disruption and get our operations back on schedule.”
In the open letter, Clark also acknowledged customer claims that they were left without any assistance at the airport, but pointed out that the airline deployed “over 100 employee volunteers to look after disrupted customers at Dubai Airport departures and in the transit area, prioritising medical cases, the elderly and other vulnerable travellers. To date, over 12,000 hotel rooms were secured to accommodate disrupted customers in Dubai, 250,000 meal vouchers have been issued, and more quantities of drinking water, blankets, and other amenities.” In addition, he said “a taskforce” had been created “to sort, reconcile, and deliver some 30,000 pieces of left-behind baggage to their owners.”
As of Saturday, the airline’s regular flight schedules were restored but Clark warned that “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.”
He also recognised the company’s failings, writing “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.”
