In an impassioned open letter to its customers, Sir Tim Clark, CEO of Emirates Airline, extended «our most sincere apologies to every customer who has had their travel plans disrupted» during an unprecedented storm that hit the United Arab Emirates, marking one of the airline’s «toughest» operational weeks.
Detailing the severity of the situation, Clark wrote, «On Tuesday 16 April, the UAE experienced its highest rainfall in 75 years. Lashing storm winds and rain disrupted activity across the cities.» The impact on Emirates’ operations was profound, with the CEO admitting, «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.»
In response to the crisis, the airline took decisive actions to manage the impact on passengers. «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,» Clark explained.
Clark highlighted the company’s customer-first response during this time, noting, «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.»
The CEO openly acknowledged the shortcomings in the airline’s handling of the situation, stating, «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.» He emphasized that the airline has taken «learnings from the last few days to make things right and improve our processes.»
Clark concluded his letter by thanking the Emirates teams and their partners for their dedication and hard work in mitigating the crisis’s effects. «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,» he said.
Offering a final note of reassurance and commitment, Clark reiterated, «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.»
