Emirates Airline President Message on Restoring Operations

Emirates Airline President, Sir Tim Clark speaks about restoring operations after unprecedented weather disruptions.

“We would like to start by expressing our deepest apologies for the extensive inconveniences experienced by our valued customers during the recent severe operational disruptions caused by unprecedented stormy weather in the United Arab Emirates.”

Challenging Days

The record-breaking weather event on Tuesday, 16 April, marked the UAE’s heaviest rainfall in 75 years, leading to significant disruptions across the region, particularly impacting access to Dubai’s main airport due to heavily flooded roads.

Despite the challenging conditions, our central hub in Dubai continued to operate, although Emirates flight operations were substantially reduced to ensure passenger safety.

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Actions Taken

To manage the situation and care for affected customers, we:

• Suspended check-in for passengers departing from Dubai
• Imposed an embargo on ticket sales
• Temporarily halted connecting passenger traffic into Dubai
• Mobilized additional resources to support airport and contact center teams
• Deployed over 100 employee volunteers at Dubai Airport to assist disrupted customers
• Secured over 12,000 hotel rooms in Dubai and issued 250,000 meal vouchers
• Provided essential amenities like drinking water and blankets

Restoring Operations

As of Saturday, 20 April, we have successfully restored our regular flight schedules.

Efforts are ongoing to clear the backlog of rebooked passengers and manage around 30,000 pieces of left-behind baggage, with a dedicated task force working to reconcile and deliver these items to their rightful owners.

Commitment to Improvement

“We acknowledge the frustration and inconvenience our customers faced during this period,” stated Sir Tim Clark. “We are deeply committed to learning from this experience and improving our processes. Our teams and partners have worked tirelessly under difficult conditions to support our customers and restore our operations.”

Thank You for Your Patience

We appreciate the continued patience and understanding of our customers as we work diligently to resolve remaining issues and reaffirm our commitment to upholding the ‘Fly Better’ promise.