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Frustrated airline passengers hoping to get back to Bahrain were left stranded in the UAE for more than 26 hours and finally started returning home yesterday afternoon.
Extreme weather conditions across the region and particularly in Dubai, the world’s busiest airline hub, led to a massive disruption to services.
One British expatriate who lives in Manama told the GDN: “All flights on Tuesday were cancelled. Many of us were supposed to be on an 8am flight to Bahrain but I ended up waiting more than 26 hours.
“Bahrain-bound passengers were stranded in Dubai as Emirates cancelled the only four flights to Bahrain.”
Emirates suspended check-in for passengers departing Dubai until midnight (00:00hrs April 18) due to operational challenges caused by bad weather and road conditions, the airline’s spokesperson said in a statement to Khaleej Times. The flight chaos was also highlighted as part of the GDN’s comprehensive regional coverage yesterday.
The college lecturer had been on a short Eid vacation to Thailand and ended up booking a flight to Bahrain on Gulf Air scheduled to board at 7.45am yesterday. It too was delayed from taking off several times before touching down in the kingdom. “The flight had no bags on it when we eventually arrived,” she added. “I don’t care but so many people were super mad, over exhausted and overly frustrated. There was a lot of shouting.”
Dubai International Airport, one of the world’s busiest, said it was facing significant disruptions after the heavy rains delayed or diverted flights and had impacted flight crews.
It stated on social media that the airport was ‘working hard to recover operations as quickly as possible in very challenging conditions’.
The Dubai airport website showed hours-long delays for some arrival and departure flights.
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