Dubai airport disruption: Here’s what to do if you’ve been affected

24.04.2024 - 14:29 / euronews.com / Tim Clark / Saskia ODonoghue

Following days of chaos at Dubai International Airport, the head of Emirates Airline has published an open letter, offering his “most sincere apologies to every customer who has had their travel plans disrupted”.

Severe and unprecedented flooding has caused more than 1,000 flight cancellations, with hundreds of thousands passengers stranded.

Many other arrivals and departures to and from the airport have been hit by diversions and long delays.

Emirates is the largest airline to fly from the hub and its president, Sir Tim Clark, wrote: “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.”

“We acknowledge that the long queues and wait times have been unacceptable,” he added.

On Friday, a 48-hour capacity limit on arrivals was imposed at Dubai Airport in a bid to limit crowding and clear some of the stranded passengers.

While Emirates was forced to temporarily suspend check in and arrivals at its hub, it has opened up most operations as of Monday.

However, many travellers are still stuck thousands of miles from home after 12 flights set to arrive on Saturday were cancelled.

Cancelled inbound flights to Dubai included journeys from Australia, India and South Africa.

Usually, around 250,000 passengers travel through the airport on a daily basis but tracking service Flightradar24 announced that, by 3pm CET on Thursday, some 1,145 flights had been cancelled. That’s one third of the normal schedule.

Dubai authorities say there is still a backlog of passengers’ baggage building at the airport, despite the resumption of many flight routes.

If you have been affected by the disruption at Dubai airports, there are two avenues to claim compensation as well as a new flight.

No matter which country you are travelling to, from or though, airlines should keep passengers informed and provide food and accommodation (if the delay necessitates an overnight stay).

If you’re coming from or going to an EU destination, passenger rights mean that if your flight is delayed for two hours or more at departure, the airline must offer you care including meals, refreshments and, if necessary, accommodation.

If the delay means that you arrive at your final destination more than three hours late, you may also be entitled to financial compensation. The amount is based on how far you are flying.

If your flight arrives in the EU from Dubai and is operated by an EU airline, or if it departs from the EU to Dubai and is operated by any airline, EU air passenger rights apply.

However, if your flight is not EU-regulated, you won't be covered by the UK/EU flight delay compensation scheme.

However, most airlines have a