Tim Clark, the chief executive of Emirates, has issued an open letter to apologise extensively to passengers who were stuck at Dubai airport due to heavy rains and flooding in recent days. Clark’s open letter was distributed on Saturday by PR agencies in the Netherlands and Belgium, among others. ‘This week was one of the toughest for Emirates operationally, as record storms hit the United Arab Emirates. I would like to sincerely apologize to any passenger whose travel plans have been disrupted during this time,” Clark said in the statement. Emirates has come under fire in recent days as affected passengers felt abandoned and had to spend the night at the airport. On Tuesday, April 16, the United Arab Emirates experienced the heaviest rainfall in 75 years. In a short period of time, more rain fell than normally falls in a year. Emirates has diverted dozens of flights to avoid the worst of the weather on Tuesday. In the following three days, nearly 400 flights were canceled and many more were postponed. According to Clark, there were two priorities: “Taking care of our passengers affected by the disruption, and getting our operations back on schedule.” According to Clark, Emirates has sent more than 100 staff/volunteers to care for disrupted travellers on departures at Dubai airport and in the transit area, prioritising medical cases, the elderly and other vulnerable travellers. According to Clark, Emirates provided more than 12,000 hotel rooms in Dubai to accommodate disrupted travelers. In addition, 250,000 meal vouchers were issued and larger quantities of drinking water, blankets and other facilities were provided. Emirates has set up a task force to sort and deliver approximately 30,000 pieces of abandoned baggage to their owners. Clark: ‘We know that our response has been far from perfect. We acknowledge and understand the frustration of our passengers due to the crowds, lack of information and confusion in the terminals. We recognise that the long queues and waiting times have been unacceptable.” Clark continued, “We take our commitment to our passengers very seriously, and we’ve learned from the past few days to put things right and improve our processes.” Air traffic to and from Dubai has now fully resumed. (Photo Shutterstock).
The letter from Emirates CEO is a joke! No blankets, food, water or hotel vouchers were offered to us at any time, nor to any of the passengers we came across during our 60 hours at Dubai terminal 3. Staff were nowhere to be seen. No information was offered and one woman ended up breast feeding another’s baby as no formula was available for those who had run out.
I have MS and us a stick to walk. My husband and I slept in the floor and luckily managed to buy water and crisps, on which we survived the time we were there. My medication was running low, but there warms no one to ask about buying more. We bought water for a group of young girls travelling who had little money to afford the airport prices.
Emirates should be ashamed of the way they treated their passengers! As should Fly Dubai ( iwned by Emirates).
3 days late at our destination, we slept all of the first day, exhausted, leaving only 3 days to enjoy our dream holiday. No baggage has arrived 4 days in as we prepare for the journey home. We are lucky we could afford to buy basics in the hotel shop. & the hotel have arranged a doctor to sort some of the more essential medication out for us ( yet more additional expense).
Emirates will, no doubt be putting up resistance when we try to claim back expenses incurred due to their poor management, once we return home.
Platitudes after the event are very easy. We spent nearly 3 days at Dubai in the Emirates terminal. It was like a refugee camp. The place was a tinderbox – ready to erupt. During our wait there we queued (the only way to speak with an airline representative) at various times – for a total of 14 hours. Contrary to all the extra staff mentioned – staff were conspicuous by their absence – you would be forgiven for thinking they’d been advised to hide. We were offered no hotel, water, food vouchers and I didn’t see a blanket anywhere. We are now on our holiday – having lost 3 days. As for “taking care of passengers….” that is laughable. For the entire time we were at DXB there was zero interaction / communication – apart from regular extensions to the delay on our flight and, of course, gate changes so that if you did manage to secure a seat, you then had to give it up and walk half the length of the terminal. Our luggage has still not arrived – 3 days after arrival in the resort. We are now looking into alternative flights back as we would rather avoid Emirates and Dubai airport. We will certainly never fly with them again – having been regular customers previously. Their reputation has been massively (& deservedly) damaged by recent events. I look forward to seeing how they deal with the numerous claims they will be getting for direct and indirect compensation.