Emirates President Sir Tim Clark has apologised to customers for the disruptions caused by the severe weather that battered Dubai last week. The world’s biggest international airline operations were devastated by the storms with 400 flights cancelled and many more...
To read the full article, please log in or enter your email below:
Emirates President Sir Tim Clark has apologised to customers for the disruptions caused by the severe weather that battered Dubai last week.
The world’s biggest international airline operations were devastated by the storms with 400 flights cancelled and many more delayed. The airline’s operations have now returned to normal but the disruptions to passengers’ journeys will take a little longer to smooth out.
This is Sir Tim’s letter.
To all our valued customers,
This week has been one of the toughest for Emirates operationally, as record storms hit the United Arab Emirates.
I would like to offer our most sincere apologies to every customer who has had their travel plans disrupted during this time.
On Tuesday 16 April, 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 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.
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.
We deployed additional resources to aid our airport and contact centre teams with rebooking and put on additional flights to destinations where we identified large numbers of displaced customers.
We sent 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.
Behind the scenes, it was all hands-on deck for thousands more employees across the organisation to get our operations back on track.
As of this morning, Saturday 20 April, 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.
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.
I’d like to also acknowledge and thank our teams across the airline, and our many suppliers and partners for their tireless efforts around the clock this week, despite the challenging conditions, to support customers, recover our network, and bring our operating schedule back to normal.
Finally, and once again, 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.”
Seoul ADEX 2025 will take place at Korea International Exhibition Center (KINTEX) from Oct. 20 to 24, 2025. The venue…
The Turkish Ministry of National Defense has confirmed the successful completion of inspection and acceptance procedures for the Sub-Cloud Unmanned…
The Bali International Airshow will return on 8–11 September 2027, following the success of its inaugural edition in 2024. Organisers…
Air Astana has marked two decades of operations in the Indian market by launching a new route connecting Almaty and…
Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company, and Bristow Group Inc. have entered into a long-term agreement aimed at providing enhanced aftermarket…
United is investing in blended wing body (BWB) aircraft start-up JetZero that is creating an aircraft design that has the…
MRO company AAR is celebrating the Company’s 70th anniversary, citing its 'Doing It Right' maxim, strategic evolution of services, and…
Indonesian carrier PT TransNusa Aviation Mandiri has increased the frequency of its Jakarta–Singapore route to twice daily, effective today, as…
The Emirates Group is inviting Singapore-based IT professionals to attend an exclusive, invite-only information session on Saturday, 26 April 2025,…
Embraer signed its affiliation with the Mexican Federation of Aerospace Industry (FEMIA) during FAMEX. The affiliation aims to strengthen the…
Saudia Group has confirmed an order for 10 Airbus A330-900 aircraft for its low-cost subsidiary, flyadeal. The deal, announced during…
BOC Aviation has signed a lease agreement with Thai Airways International for five Airbus A321neo aircraft. The aircraft, sourced from…
Korean Air has been selected as the preferred bidder for a major performance upgrade programme involving the Republic of Korea’s…
The Israeli ministry of defence is evaluating initial proposals from domestic companies to decide what types of loitering weapon systems…
Boeing has entered into a definitive agreement to sell portions of its Digital Aviation Solutions division to Thoma Bravo, a…
Embraer has introduced the dentCHECK inspection tool, developed by 8tree, into its aircraft maintenance operations in Nashville, Tennessee. The move…
Monada.ai, a platform focused on automating freight sales, has partnered with CargoAi to integrate the Quote & Book API from…
India has dispatched the second battery of its BrahMos supersonic cruise missile system to the Philippines, marking continued progress in…
All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Singapore Airlines (SIA) will begin operating revenue-sharing flights between Japan and Singapore from September 2025,…
Fokker Services Group (FSG) - a leader in aircraft maintenance, modifications, completions, and conversions- has been selected by Embraer for…
Dubai Airports received the Operational Excellence Award from AirportLabs at Passenger Terminal Expo 2025, in recognition of its decade-long innovation…
Discussions between Japan and Indonesia on the potential joint development and production of advanced frigates for the Indonesian Navy are…
The European Space Agency's (ESA) Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space (ACES) has been successfully launched to the International Space Station…
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has partnered with DCX Systems Limited to establish a new joint venture - ELTX - aimed…
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) has announced its decision to invest in two Dutch companies—Emergent Swarm Solutions and Saluqi…
Dynamatic Technologies and Deutsche Aircraft have inaugurated the rear fuselage assembly line for the D328eco turboprop aircraft at Dynamatic's aerospace…
FN has introduced a new brand identity as part of its ongoing development in the defence and security sector. This…
Huawei introduced five innovative aviation solutions at Madrid's Passenger Terminal Expo 2025, designed to drive intelligent upgrades within the industry,…
Azorra has delivered the first of two new Embraer E195-E2 aircraft to Hunnu Air, marking both the start of a…
French surveillance and security solutions provider ATERMES is returning to IQDEX 2025, held from 19 to 22 April at the…
Headquartered in Singapore with reporters spread across all major regions, GBP Aerospace & Defence is a leading media house that publishes three publications that serve the aerospace and defence sector - Asian Defence Technology, Asian Airlines & Aerospace and Daily News. Known industry-wide for quality journalism, GBP Aerospace & Defence is present at more international tradeshows and exhibitions than any other competing publication in the region.
For over three decades, our award-winning team of reporters has been producing top-notch content to help readers stay abreast of the latest developements in the field of commercial aviation, MRO, defence, and Space.
Copyright 2024. GBP. All Rights Reserved.
Home Defence & Security Space Commercial Aviation Maintence Repair & Overhaul Daily News Events About Us
2025 GBP all rights reserved.