Five days after the flood which on April 16 flooded Dubai with very heavy consequences on air traffic, Operations are fully back to normal at the Gulf’s main hub.
The two ‘home’ airlines, Emirates and FlyDubai, suffered the most with hundreds and hundreds of flights canceled or delayed on April 16 and 17.
Tens of thousands of passengers have not been able to reach Dubai In those two days and thousands more were trapped in the megahub’s transit area, unable to continue their journey after landing before Jupiter Pluvius unleashed.
We received hundreds of messages from readers asking for help or simply telling us about their situation.
Photos of the terminal crowded with thousands of people have gone around the world, as have photos (and videos) of the flooded runways, inevitably causing image damage to a hub that has always made efficiency its strong point.
The peculiar thing, certainly far from positive, was. The absence from the homepages of the Emirates and Flydubai websites of any warning, ‘alert’ as they say in English, which would recall the disaster that was unfolding in those hours. This customer care gap was filled, at least partially, only in the hours and days after the deluge, when the worst was already over.
And the two ‘home’ companies did so in rather different ways: Flydubai, established as Emirates’ low-cost airline and still considered the Gulf giant’s ‘little sister’ in terms of fleet, network, type of aircraft, and on-board comfort (although it should be noted that the two airlines operate independently of each other, except for codesharing on almost all flights operated), has chosen a stringent message spread over and over again on social media since April 17 in which, in addition to apologizing for the inconvenience suffered by its customers and updating them on the current situation by recommending that passengers check the operability of their flights before going to the airport, as of April 17 it assured all passengers whose flights had been canceled that what they had spent on their tickets would be refunded directly by the airline or travel agencies for those who had booked through that channel.
Emirates, instead, she took her time. And four days after the deluge, longtime president Sir Tim Clark wrote an open letter to all customers. In a rather verbose message, Clark informed of the return to normal operations at his Dubai hub, apologized for the inconvenience suffered by passengers, admitting that “our response was far from perfect.”, understanding “the frustration of our customers due to the chaos at the airport and lack of information” and acknowledging that “the long lines (at the information desks, ed.) and waiting times were unacceptable.”
But he also stressed the extraordinary nature of the situation and explained that “to date, more than 12 thousand hotel rooms have been made available free of charge to those whose travel has been compromised and 250 thousand meal vouchers have been delivered, as well as huge amounts of water, blankets and other necessities, with special attention to our older passengers, families with children and those with disabilities.”
However, in his long message, Emirates’ number one made no mention of the economic aspect of the affair, i.e., to refunds for those whose flights were canceled or vacations ruined, merely explaining that “passengers stranded in the airport’s transit area have been rebooked onto other flights and are now flying to their destinations, or have already arrived there,” and that “we have set up a task force that in these hours is delivering to the owners the approximately 30 thousand pieces of luggage left behind by those who were able to leave” due to the flooding of the runways that had made it impossible for them to board planes.
Now, we have no doubt that Emirates, as the carrier with a renowned customer focus that it is, is also proceeding to refund those who had their flights canceled. But making at least an access in the letter would have been more respectful to the customers.
