As Emirates Airlines recovers from an unprecedented disruption due to heavy rains in Dubai, Tim Clark, President, writes to customers apologising for disruptions and their impact on customers.

Three days after its hub in Dubai and neighbouring areas were brought to their knees due to record rainfall in the United Arab Emirates, Emirates Airlines says it is rapidly restoring its regular flight schedules. 

Even as the airline overcomes disruptions and operations return to their normal levels, Tim Clark, President, Emirates, has written an open letter to customers who were affected by the flight disruptions caused by the deluge.

In the letter Clark says that the airline tried to do its utmost to minimise discomfort to the customers, adding that it had secured over 12,000 hotel rooms to accommodate disrupted customers in Dubai, and issued over 250,000 meal vouchers and also handed out much larger quantities of drinking water, blankets and other amenities.

In his letter, Clark says that Emirates put together a taskforce to sort, reconcile, and deliver some 30,000 pieces of left-behind baggage to their owners.

‘‘On April 16, the UAE experienced its highest rainfall in 75 years. Lashing storm winds and rain disrupted activity across the cities. Our 24/7 hub in Dubai remained open, with flight movements reduced for safety, but flooded roads impeded the ability of our customers, pilots, cabin crew, and airport employees to reach the airport, and also the movement of essential supplies like meals and other flight amenities.

We diverted dozens of flights to avoid the worst of the weather on Tuesday, and over the next three days we had to cancel nearly 400 flights and delay many more, as our hub operations remained challenged by staffing and supply shortages,’’ says Clark.

‘‘We were clear on our two priorities, namely look after our customers who have been impacted by the disruption, and get our operations back on schedule. To free up resources and capacity to manage impacted customers as a priority, we had to suspend check-in for passengers departing Dubai, implement an embargo on ticket sales, and temporarily halt connecting passenger traffic from points across our network coming into Dubai,’’ Clark adds.

‘‘As of April 20, our regular flight schedules have been restored. Passengers previously stranded in the airport transit area have been rebooked and are enroute to their destinations. We have put together a taskforce to sort, reconcile, and deliver some 30,000 pieces of left-behind baggage to their owners. 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 adds.

‘‘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. 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,’’ says Clark.