Dubai: The travel process at all terminals of Dubai International Airport was limping back to the normal schedule on Friday, two days after an Emirates’ aircraft’s operational incident after landing.
The Boeing 777 caught fire on Wednesday afternoon after landing at the airport. The flight EK521 carrying 282 passengers and 18 crew members was travelling from the southern Indian city of Thiruvananthapuram to Dubai.
Gulf News visited the airport on the third day of the incident and found out that the situation was coming back to normal, though thousands of passengers were still stranded and struggling to get the first available flights. Thousands of transit passengers and tourists were accommodated in various hotels by the airlines, while residents were advised to check their flights’ status from their airlines before coming to the airport.
While flights of budget airlines, especially to South Asian countries, seem to be the worst affected, Emirates and Flydubai flights have resumed full operation with delays of a couple of hours in many flights.
Sachin and Shruti Pillai flying to Mumbai said: “The 1pm flight had been delayed by two hours and we hope our flight will fly at the scheduled time of 4pm.”
Kate T., flying to Johannesburg by Emirates, said her flight was late by an hour.
Masang P., flying to Los Angeles, said he had been told of a 45-minute delay, but it had been an hour since the last announcement.
Hiba Fathima, a 16-year-old student who was on transit from Doha, Qatar, flying to Mumbai in India has been stranded for the last three days. She has been provided accommodation. She told Gulf News: “I was going on my summer vacation to Mumbai and have been stuck in Dubai for three days. They say I am on waiting list and have promised to put me on the 10pm flight to Mumbai on Sunday. I am tired.”
Some passengers complained of increased ticket costs. Mamta B. who was to fly to Amritsar by Indian Airlines from Terminal 2 was miffed when her flight was cancelled. “The airline never informed us and we were intimated at the airport. The authorities here told me only flydubai and Emirates flights are being given priority. I had to cancel a Dh500 ticket and buy a Dh2,000 Emirates airline ticket to New Delhi as the demand is too high,” she complained.
Syed Humayun Sharaf from Islamabad, who had for a five-day tourist visit to Dubai, was stranded as Air Blue cancelled its flight and can accommodate him only on August 9. “I am missing out on important meetings and waiting for their office to open today to cancel this ticket and book afresh on another airline,” he said.
An airport assistant said a majority of flights had resumed operation and there were minor glitches and delays which were being ironed out.
Indian carriers Jet Airways, Spice Jet and Air India Express had cancelled a majority of their flights. A Jet Airways senior manager told Gulf News that they were flying out a Boeing 777 aircraft from Mumbai to accommodate more passengers and clear backlogs as they had cancelled most of their flights in the last two days.
