[AMcWhirter]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dubai-flooding-today-heavy-rain-snarls-traffic-uae-roads-and-airport/

Heavy rain floods Dubai. Flight operations disrupted.

This is not what I expected in Dubai! My condolences to the Rolls Royce owner! 😵 pic.twitter.com/FrCikLn1Po

— Dadi Kristjansson (@dadikr) April 16, 2024

[AndrewinHK]

The holding patterns even this morning, have large numbers of aircraft stacked for more than 1 hour with some entering holds at close to cruising altitude, and many diverts to DWC/AUH/MCT. If you search for Air China CA941 on flight radar and view the playback, quite the hold, and eventually diverted to AUH.

[FDOS]

Although this seems an extremely powerful storm, these tropical storms are not uncommon in the region, in the transition between Winter and Summer (April-May) and the downpours can be intense.

I got caught in one in Riyadh, in the 2010s, that causing considerable flooding and fatalities.

Here’s hoping life gets back to normal ASAP.

I am expecting to be out there, next week, will update with anything interesting.

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AndrewinHK

[AMcWhirter]

What is happening today at Dubai airport is unprecedented for the home carrier.

Emirates is *not* accepting check-in passengers all day today {April 17].

Instead is is giving priority to its transit passengers (who presumably remain airside).

Emirates is suspending check-in for passengers departing @DXB from 8:00am on 17 April until midnight, due to operational challenges caused by bad weather and road conditions. Affected customers can contact their booking agent or visit https://t.co/H1klWYurOd for rebooking. (1/3) pic.twitter.com/88P1WJHB2n

— Emirates Support (@EmiratesSupport) April 17, 2024

[esselle]

We landed there in a November many years ago, and the Captain announced they had experienced a very intense storm. Road on the way into the hotel was flooded, schools were closed and it was chaos.

The next day everything was back to normal!

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FDOS

[FDOS]

That’s been my experience, Esselle and I’ve been to Dubai tens of times over 20 years.

This time looks to have been a very severe storm.

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AMcWhirter, esselle

[AMcWhirter]

In the last few mins Emirates has issued a number of tweets/X.

Emirates has extended the no check-in for *departing passengers from Dubai* until 09:00 tomorrow (April 18).

Passengers are told not to come to the airport until after 09:00 and then only provided they hold a confirmed flight booking.

Emirates flights departing the UK, for example, are heavily booked if not completely full in all classes.

Manchester-based SPD travels @SPD_travels tweeted “At Manchester for example, all [Emirates] flights are now completely full until 24th [April]. The [Emirates] website does show the odd fare in business class but they are oversold so somebody is getting bumped off.”

[first_class_please]

Extremely severe. I live in Dubai and have spent last 25 years in Middle East and not experienced anything like this.
Metro and all taxis stopped / were not available.
Had to go to airport to pick up a relative. 30-40 minute journey took me 7 hours in a GMC Yukon, very large American SUV.
Some roads were not passible and closed.
Cars, trucks, minibuses abandoned and floating in places.
This will take days to recover from.
Schools and government offices all remote learn/work this week.
Clear and sunny now, golf courses all going to be closed for a while.

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AMcWhirter, FDOS

[FDOS]

first_class_please

Hoping you are not too badly affected by the after effects of the storm.

DXB is a busy airport – imagine if LHR had a foot of snow and the knock on disruption will last for days, with aircraft in the wrong places and thousand of pax to reaccommodate.

Anyone flying on a UK/EU carrier will be covered by EC261 for care (hotac/subsistence), but otherwise, they will have to rely on travel insurance, if they have it and if the insurers aren’t able to claim act of god.

Also, this will not be a happy period for travellers without airline status, as they will be head of the queue for bumping/downgrading, so we should empathise with how upsetting that will be.

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Jacob, ASK1945, AMcWhirter, first_class_please

[AMcWhirter]

Indeed FDOS. I am sure many of you can recall the heavy snowfall at UK airports around 2011 or 2012. Heathrow operations almost ground to a halt for days.

Today there are endless tales from the hoardes of travellers delayed/stranded at Dubai airport.

These mega hubs benefit both airlines and their customers when things go according to plan.

In depth report from Simon Calder today.

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/dubai-airport-emirates-flights-cancelled-today-b2530635.html

1 user thanked author for this post.

FDOS

[ASK1945]

Alex – it’s not just flights from/to home and transits that are affected by issues such as these. In February 2018 there was Anticyclone Hartmut (dubbed the “Beast from the East”). My wife and I left LHR just hours before it struck, to join a cruise from Miami the following day.

Unfortunately, many others from Western Europe were caught up in “The Beast” and literally hundreds didn’t make it to the departing ship. Many joined during various stops during the next few days, others missed the whole cruise. We spoke with one couple who were eventually routed LHR-Chicago-LAX-Antigua, joining the ship 5 days late.

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FDOS, AMcWhirter

[alainboy56]

@AndrewinHK
Yes they sent 4 or 5 A380 AUS flts into DWC in the very early hours (guess they were running on fumes) and it seems PAX were not treated very well ………….. or rather not treated at all.
There is no EK presence in DWC (Engineering/Cargo yes, but not PAX ops) and since C-19 there are no FlyDubai (EK subsidiary) ops, and even QR have vanished.
The only flt ops out of DWC are Russian flights and I guess they use DnATA for ground staff requirements.
I know DWC very well as I used to use QR out of there for DOH for onwards and outwards – extremely convenient – I could park the car (for free) not 20m from the Terminal doors.

As somebody who does live here and for 29 years plus and counting, its not unusual, there are rainstorms every year and every 5 years or so they can be extremely violent. I remember maybe 2016, when a storm sucked out windows and damaged/creased the external cladding to the ALOFT Hotel in AD near the AD Exhibition Centre. And on this very Tuesday evening had an early snack at 6pm with an Italian colleague and as the ‘waiting staff’ were panicking at what was to come that night, we were reminiscing on how he had a Joinery factory in Ras Al Khor (Dubai) and how back in maybe 1995 after similar circumstances, his factory had been ruined leaving 1m of rainwater throughout, destroying all production, materials, and machines. His factory was closed more than 3 mths.

The problems in the last few days have been extreme, and where I live, or to be precise, about 15kms away, we had the record rainfall for the UAE over the 24hr period, namely 254.8mm at Khatm Al Shiklah, which is the border post between UAE and Oman in the lee of the Mountains, where I passed through not 15 days ago to enjoy Iftar with Omani friends in Buraimi …………………………. There were no such problems then.

Today, the sun was out, and there is not even a puddle remaining here, but Dubai suffers from having a weak infrastructure, so it will take time to recover.

4 users thanked author for this post.

Jacob, AMcWhirter, AndrewinHK, FDOS

[AMcWhirter]

The situation at DXB and with Emirates is far from resolved.

France’s @airplusnews has just posted chaotic scenes at DXB via X/twitter.

Appears to show large crowds at the Emirates connections desks.

As readers know Emirates is a major sixth-freedom airline.

It is certainly struggling to cope with volumes of transfer travellers.

As a result Emirates has now suspended check-in for connecting travellers (network-wide) through Dubai until 23:59 GMT today.

I believe this is unprecedented.

Emirates is suspending check-in for all customers in our network with onward connections through Dubai until 23:59hrs GMT, 19 April (03:59hrs Dubai time, 20 April).

Customers with connections in Dubai will only be accepted at their point of origin if their flight departs after… pic.twitter.com/1FyKTWmaar

— Emirates Support (@EmiratesSupport) April 19, 2024

[FDOS]

I am travelling to Dubai, tomorrow.

Thankfully via AUH.

1 user thanked author for this post.

AMcWhirter

[first_class_please]

Most roads / metro / taxi back to normal now.
A couple of road exits still blocked but should be open soon. A few metro stations still closed but metro running.
Emirates cancelled all transit passengers yesterday, only departures from Dubai or final destination.
Think back to normal from today.
Flights seem to be departing this morning with minimal delays.

Enjoy your trip, with the speed of efforts been taken for clean up you may not notice much.

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FDOS

[Author]

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