People queue at a flight connection desk after a storm hit Dubai, causing delays at Dubai International Airport, United Arab Emirates, April 17, 2024.
Rula Rouhana | Reuters
The CEO of Emirates airline issued a letter of apology to customers over the weekend after historic rains in the United Arab Emirates caused record flooding and chaos at Dubai airport.
Hundreds of flights were grounded and thousands of customers stranded as a result.
“I would like to offer our sincerest apologies to any customer whose travel plans have been disrupted during this period,” company chief Tim Clark wrote in the letter posted on the airline’s website on Saturday.
“We know our response is far from perfect. We recognize and understand our customers’ frustration with congestion, lack of information and confusion at the terminals. We recognize the long queues and wait times were unacceptable.”
While the airline’s service hub at Dubai Airport remained open, “flooded roads hampered the ability of customers, pilots, cabin crew and airport staff to reach the airport, as well as the movement of essential supplies such as meals and other amenities flight,” Clark wrote.
A woman and her daughters eat as they wait for their flight after a storm hit Dubai, causing delays at Dubai International Airport, United Arab Emirates, April 17, 2024.
Rula Rouhana | Reuters
He said the airline diverted dozens of flights on Tuesday as the worst of the storm raged and that “over the next 3 days we had to cancel nearly 400 flights and delay many more as our hub operations remained challenged by staff and supply shortages.”
On Wednesday, Emirates issued a statement urging travelers not to come to the airport except in emergencies. It also suspended check-ins for those intending to fly out of Dubai, embargoed ticket sales and suspended connecting flights from other cities to Dubai, leaving some passengers stranded around the world.
Social media lit up with angry posts from customers who said they had received no help from Emirates staff and were unable to contact anyone at the company.
“12 hours waiting on a canceled flight and 6 hours waiting in this office with people passing out, fighting and trying to stay sane and absolutely no communication from Emirates,” one Instagram user posted, along with a photo showing a packed crowd of people in front of Emirates. screens at Dubai Airport. The time stamp on the photo was 7:05 am. of Friday.
Another traveler told CNBC via social media: “It took me 48 hours to get from London to Baghdad via Dubai. Five hours on the tarmac in the plane [in Dubai], an hour from which there was no one to open the aircraft bridge gates. I made my own exit… found a hotel and came back, waited 12 hours. They took a flight and served us almonds!’
Some people said they were stuck at the airport for more than 20 hours and others, stranded in foreign cities and connecting airports, said they had to book their own return home after receiving no help from Emirates.
TOPSHOT – Cars are stranded on a flooded road in Dubai after heavy rain on April 18, 2024. Dubai’s giant highways were blocked by floods and its major airport was in chaos as the Middle East’s financial hub remained closed on April 18 , a day after the heaviest rains on record.
Giuseppe Cacace | Afp | Getty Images
Clark said his staff was doing their best to deal with the unprecedented situation and that “it is practical for thousands more employees in the organization to get our operations back on track.”
The CEO wrote that the airline “deployed more than 100 volunteer employees to attend to stranded customers at Dubai Airport’s departures and transit area, prioritizing medical cases, the elderly and other vulnerable travelers.” He added that more than 12,000 hotel rooms were provided for customers in Dubai, as well as 250,000 meal vouchers.
As of Saturday, regular Emirates flights had been restored. In the letter, Clark said the airline still had more than 30,000 bags to return to customers.
“We have set up a task force to sort, reconcile and hand over around 30,000 bags to their owners,” he said, adding that “it will take us a few more days to clear the backlog of detained passengers and bags. ” and asking customers for “patience and understanding.”
Clark concluded by pledging to improve the airline’s processes and thanking its staff for their work, as well as “our apologies to any customer affected by this disruption”.