Emirates returns Dh6.3b to customers in COVID-related travel refunds

Dubai: Emirates on Wednesday said it processed nearly 1.7 million refund requests over the seven-month period starting April. This resulted in the airline returning Dh6.3 billion refunds to its customers.

Out of this amount, Dh4.7 billion was refunded to customers who had booked directly with the airline, and the remainder was returned via travel agencies.

In addition, Emirates managed over 130,000 refunds-related queries from customers and travel agency partners and made status changes to nearly 4 million flight coupons.

“In the early months of 2020, COVID-19 massively disrupted travel around the world and led to an unprecedented volume of refunds requests across the aviation and travel industry, including at Emirates,” said Tim Clark, President, Emirates Airline.

“Emirates has now cleared our backlog of refunds - we still have higher volumes of refunds and flight coupon change requests compared to pre-pandemic times, but we now have the capability to manage these within a 7-day turnaround,” he added.