industry

300 Indians stranded at Al Maktoum Airport near Dubai


HYDERABAD: About 300 Indian passengers, many of them from Hyderabad, were stranded for over 12 hours without food or water at the Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC) on Saturday after their flight to Dubai was diverted due to heavy rainfall. Terminal 1 at the Dubai International Airport (DBX) was, reportedly, flooded.

Many passengers travelling onwards to the United States missed their connections from Dubai and as flights out of the airport were cancelled. They were rebooked on flights for January 14 or later.

Helpless passengers reached out to their families back home complaining about chaos at Al Maktoum – 37 km southwest of Dubai – and lack of support from airline operators. Till late evening, many were not even given accommodation.

Speaking to STOI from Al Maktoum, Prashanth Shanmugam who boarded a Hyderabad-Dubai Emirates flight, EK 525, at 4.30am said: “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.”

Emirates, meanwhile, issued an advisory for its passengers which read: “Heavy rainfall has caused disruptions to several flights departing from or arriving at Dubai. Customers are requested to check their flight status on https://emirates.com/flightstatus for the latest information.” It also assured alternate arrangements for passengers who missed their connections.

Shanmugam was originally scheduled to take a 9.55 am (local time) flight to Seattle from Dubai on January 11. “Yet, I have not got any hotel confirmation from the airlines for the delay nor advise to proceed further to reach Dubai airport,” he said confirming that most flyers stranded are Indian, travelling to different parts of the world through Emirates.

“My wife is travelling to San Francisco. Stranded for a long time at DWC Airport. She is now standing in some line to collect hotel vouchers. Not sure when she will get that, and how she will manage afterwards. Her connecting flight is now booked on January 14,” said Subrahmanyam who reached out to STOI through social media. His wife was on the same flight and missed her connection.

A message he received from her read: “Around 300 passengers are waiting clueless about what to do. Most of us missed flights. They are asking us to buy Dubai visa…but then we do not know where to buy…I have few dollars with which I can buy but still there is no proper process.”

Another harried passenger, Nitin Agarwal, that STOI interacted with was stuck at the Rasal Khaimah airport, over 100 km from Dubai, for 12 hours. His Fly Dubai flight was redirected, due to the same reason. “Reached Dubai but stuck here,” he later told STOI.





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