The CEO of Emirates Airline sent a letter of apology to customers the next weekend Historic rainfall within the United Arab Emirates caused record-breaking flooding and chaos at Dubai airport.
Hundreds of flights needed to be canceled and 1000’s of consumers were stranded because of this.
“I would like to sincerely apologize to any customer whose travel plans were disrupted during this time,” company CEO Tim Clark wrote within the letter posted on the airline’s website Saturday.
“We know our response was far from perfect. We recognize and understand our customers' frustration due to congestion, lack of information and confusion in the terminals. We recognize that the long queues and waiting times were unacceptable.”
While the airline's service hub at Dubai Airport remained open, “flooded roads hindered the ability of our customers, pilots, cabin crew and airport staff to reach the airport, as well as the transportation of essential goods such as meals and other flight amenities,” Clark wrote.
He said that the airline diverted dozens of flights on Tuesday when the storm was at its worst and that “we had to cancel nearly 400 flights and delay many more over the next three days as our hub operations continued to be hit by staffing and supply shortages.” was challenged.”
Emirates issued a notice on Wednesday urging travelers not to come to the airport except in emergency situations. Additionally, check-ins for those scheduled to depart from Dubai were suspended, an embargo was placed on ticket sales, and connecting flights to Dubai from other cities were suspended, leaving some passengers stranded around the world.
Angry posts appeared on social media from customers saying they received no help from Emirates staff and could not contact anyone at the company.
“12 hours waiting for a canceled flight and 6 hours waiting at this counter with people passed out, arguing, attempting to keep their sanity and no communication from Emirates in anyway,” one Instagram user posted along with a photo showing a crowd outside Emirates shows screens at Dubai airport. The timestamp on the photo was Friday, 7:05 a.m.
Another traveler told CNBC on social media: “It took me 48 hours to get from London to Baghdad via Dubai. Five hours on the tarmac on the plane.” [in Dubai], for an hour there was no one there to open the gates of the aircraft bridge. I set out on my own… found a hotel and went back, waited 12 hours. I got on a flight and they 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 trip home after failing to receive help from Emirates.
Clark said his employees did their best to deal with the unprecedented situation and that “whatever it takes is vital for 1000’s more employees across the corporate to get our operations back up and running.”
The CEO wrote that the airline “deployed over 100 volunteer staff to help distressed customers at Dubai Airport's departure point and within the 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 and 250,000 meal vouchers were issued.
Emirates' regular flight schedules have been restored since Saturday. In the letter, Clark said the airline still has more than 30,000 bags to return to customers.
“We have put together a task force to sort, reconcile and deliver around 30,000 pieces of abandoned baggage to their owners,” he said, adding that it will “take a few more days to clear the backlog of rebooked passengers and bags. “ “and ask for customers’ “patience and understanding.”
Clark concluded by promising to improve the airline's processes, thanking his employees for their work and apologizing “to each customer affected by this disruption.”
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