Forecasters knew a major storm was heading towards the United Arab Emirates, and authorities advised people to stay at home.
As feared, the UAE's largest city, Dubai, has been brought to a standstill by the heaviest rains since records began in 1949, puncturing drainage systems and turning the runway at Dubai International Airport (DXB) into a rushing river. became.
In some ways, this is as shocking as it is at the world's busiest airport for international passenger traffic (87 million people passed through it last year), and the culprit for all operational disruptions.
You won't have any money, you won't have clean clothes, and you'll have to ask for laundry service at your hotel…trust me when I say I keep my receipts!
On a sunny day, DXB carries an average of 238,000 passengers (compared to about 195,890 at Hong Kong International Airport before the pandemic), with about 1,140 flights operated by 100 airlines.
These numbers are primarily due to DXB serving as a hub for local airline Emirates and as a link to other airlines, with approximately 63 percent of people traveling around the world using the arrival and departure gates. This is due to the fact that you only see part of the airport in between. (However, DXB is one airport where you can take a city tour during a long layover).
Hubs are a great idea when everything is going well, which is why so many airlines operate them, but when problems arise, as demonstrated last week, hubs This becomes the network's Achilles heel.
Although the situation is calming down at DXB this week, dry progress reports published by airlines and media outlets are still at odds with some personal accounts circulating on social media.
On April 20, Reuters reported that Dubai's flagship airline Emirates had “restored normal operations.”
President Tim Clark said Emirates had canceled nearly 400 flights (out of a total of 1,478 flights that ticked the dreaded words on departure boards) and delayed many more. The airline also “provided 12,000 hotel rooms and 250,000 meal vouchers to affected customers.”
On the same day, Emirates' sister airline announced that flydubai has resumed operating its entire flight schedule from Terminal 2 and Terminal 3 at Dubai International Airport. In the coming days, we will continue to focus on passengers whose travel plans have been affected. ”
As recently as April 22, Emirates said it needed “a few more days” to bring the last stranded passenger home.
That's all well and good until you consider the impact on passengers who will have to hang around while such a huge backlog is sorted out.
“So I was due to fly home on April 19th,” he posted on X (Twitter, as everyone knows) on April 22nd. “@Emirate says our next flight is on the 29th… 10 days after we were supposed to go home, how can this be allowed?
“I don't have any money, I don't have clean clothes, and I'm going to have to ask for laundry service at the hotel…and believe me when I say I keep the receipts!”
And what will happen to checked baggage for connecting or departing passengers? Emirates has announced that it has set up a task force to help sort and deliver around 30,000 pieces of baggage stranded at airports.
Travel insurance plans vary, but it seems likely that most passengers caught up in the DXB chaos will lose out-of-pocket expenses in some way.
02:30
Record rains flood Dubai airport, stranding thousands of travelers
Record rains flood Dubai airport, stranding thousands of travelers
As the climate becomes more unstable, “natural disasters” or force majeure events, such as heat that melts runways, snowfall and strong winds that ground planes, occur, and in the Gulf region, where many hub airports are heavily used, record Floods may occur. It will become increasingly common and difficult to predict.
What is more easily foreseeable is that travel insurance will become more expensive and less comprehensive, changing the feasibility calculus for many travelers.
As uncertainty increases, we will undoubtedly begin to miss a luxury many of us take for granted: in-person global travel.
On the plus side, a climate disaster in a glamorous city can at least yield a TikTok video with an outdated title: “Influencers Trapped in Rolls-Royce in Dubai Floods.”
“free” holiday
Greece is combating the threat of climate change to its tourism industry by giving away freebies.
“The decision, which tourism officials are calling a world first, will affect up to 25,000 holidaymakers. […] Subject to compensation.
“In this program, people who stayed at the hotel [although not Airbnb accommodation] People displaced by the July fires will be able to redeem e-vouchers worth up to €500, which will cover accommodation costs for a week's stay. ”
Perhaps to avoid repeat performances or simply because we are in the middle of peak season, July is not included in either of the two phases of this initiative.
Evacuees less traumatized by last summer's experience could return clutching electronic vouchers between now and May 31st, or between October 1st and November 15th.
