Daijiworld Media Network
Dubai, Jan 12: Hundreds of passengers, including about 300 Indians, were stranded for over 12 hours at the Al Maktoum International Airport near Dubai on Saturday January 11 after flights were diverted or cancelled due to heavy rainfall.
The Times of India (ToI) reported that the passengers were stranded at the aiport "with no food and water", and that terminal 1 of the airport was flooded.
Several passengers who were scheduled to take connecting flights to Dubai have been reboooked for January 14.
The report stated passengers who contacted their families back home complained about the chaos at the airport and alleged that the airline operators did not extend sufficient support to them. Many were not given accomodation till late evening, it said.
Cars drive through a flooded street in Dubai (pic: Reuters)
Quoting a passenger named Prashanth Shanmugam who boarded the Hyderabad-Dubai Emirates flight, ToI stated, "There is no Emirates official in this airport. No one here knows how to get us to Dubai. Most of our connecting flights to Seattle/San Francisco/Boston are rescheduled for January 14 and 15."
Meanwhile, Emirates airline issued an advisory for the passengers on its Twitter handle: "Heavy rainfall has caused disruptions to several flights departing from or arriving at @DXB today. Customers are requested to check their flight status on http://emirates.com/flightstatus for the latest information regarding their flights. We apologize for any inconvenience caused."
The airline further said that those who missed their flights would be automatically booked in the next available flight. "Customers affected by flight cancellations are automatically rebooked on the next available flight. Customers are being contacted & sent their updated booking to the email address registered with Emirates at the time of booking. For more details, visit http://bit.ly/2tSNqLu."
Another passenger, Subrahmanyam, told ToI that his wife who was scheduled to travel to San Francisco sent him a message stating that about 300 passengers had been stranded at the airport and they were advised to buy Dubai visa, but the process to do so was not clear.
A day earlier, Dubai airports issued advisories to passengers warning about delays and cancellations due to rainfall. "Advisory: Heavy rainfall is expected tonight and may cause flight delays and road congestion. Customers travelling tonight or tomorrow morning are advised to leave extra time to reach the airport and to check their flight status on http://dubaiairports.ae or airline websites," Dubai Airports tweeted.
Meanwhile Air India cancelled four flights following waterlogging at Dubai airport.
"Due to heavy rains in Dubai and waterlogging at Dubai airport Air India has cancelled four of its flights to the city on Saturday," the spokesperson said in a statement.
The four flights which stand cancelled are AI 995/996- Delhi-Dubai-Delhi, AI 983/984- BOM-Dubai-BOM, AI 951/952 - Hyderabad-BOM-Hyderabad and AI 905/906- Chennai-Dubai-Chennai, he said.