South China Morning Post culture editor Kevin Kwong is also stranded at Dubai International Airport after the UAE was hit by the worst storm in decades, leaving the airport's runway submerged in water. I'm one of the travelers. He detailed the confusion he was encountering.
It was around 10:15pm on Thursday when I noticed that my scheduled 9:10pm connecting Emirates flight from Dubai International Airport to Portugal's capital Lisbon had disappeared from the departure board.
With no warning or notification from the Middle East's largest airline, my flight was canceled after at least five schedule changes, leaving me stranded at the world's busiest major airport in Dubai.
Some 1,244 flights were canceled and 41 were diverted on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to AFP news agency, and the backlog worsened on Thursday with hundreds more delays and cancellations.
When I arrived in Dubai early in the evening on my way from Bangkok, Thailand to Lisbon where I was scheduled to attend a yoga retreat, I knew chaos was in store.
Headlines such as “A year's worth of rain fell on Dubai in one day” underlined the scale of the storm that has paralyzed large parts of the United Arab Emirates since Tuesday. But nothing prepared me for the airport scene.
Young travelers sit or sleep on the terminal floor, but most seats are occupied by older relatives or families with children. Everyone wants answers.
Emirates and flydubai customers (some of whom have already been at the airport for more than 70 hours) are flocking to their boarding gates, but with no ground staff to attend to them, we are left with even more confusion. What is there to do but get frustrated and angry?
“Customer, please tell us what's going on,” a man shouts.
And if no official information is released or available, rumors begin to spread that your flight will be cancelled. Is the next flight out of this departure gate going to Tel Aviv instead of Warsaw?
I overheard someone say there was a plane but no crew. People use their smartphones to translate any information available, rumor or otherwise, into their own language.
Strangely, such a modern airport has no phone charging stations and very few public outlets. I'm sure I'm not the only one worried that their phones will die before we leave.
But there are plenty of cafes and restaurants, so at least you won't starve. And Emirates offered free drinks and food “at any participating restaurant at Dubai International Airport.”
Meanwhile, the restrooms are at capacity. I have yet to find a place that is at least reasonably clean, but where you don't have to line up to pee.
At 10:45pm, I received an “Important Travel Information” email from Emirates. “We regret to inform you that flight EK0193 from Dubai to Lisbon on April 18th has been canceled due to inclement weather in Dubai. Please contact your travel agent to rebook. If you booked directly with Emirates, please contact us. Please contact us. We apologize for the inconvenience.”
is that so? Aren't airlines supposed to put us in hotels? However, another rumor states that all hotels in Dubai are fully booked.
I contacted my travel agent in Hong Kong, but as of this writing, I still don't know when I will be leaving Dubai.
