UAE airlines resume normal Europe operations

UAE carriers Emirates and Etihad have began operating scheduled commercial flights to European destinations after a nearly week-long disruption due to the air safety threat caused by volcanic ash cloud.

Emirates said their services have begun to get back to schedule starting on Wednesday when all but two of its scheduled flights to Europe took off.

“In total 37 Emirates flights departed from Dubai to Europe on Wednesday, including 12 to the UK and seven to Germany. The two cancelled flights were the early morning departures to London Heathrow and London Gatwick,” a spokesperson said.

Salem Obaidalla, Emirates’ Senior Vice President, Commercial Operations Europe & Russian Federation, also confirmed that the airline will operate three extra flights to London over the next 24 hours to assist passengers waiting to continue their journeys.

“In total today (Wednesday) our Europe flights carried some 9,000 passengers and we have 350 currently left in Dubai as a result of the disruption, but they will be on their way as soon as possible,” Obaidalla said.

An Emirates spokesperson also mentioned that customers affected by the disruption can cancel their booking or change their onward destination without charge.

Meanwhile, Etihad CEO James Hogan said despite the operational of flights to and from Europe, the backlog of passengers and airport congestion would be significant.

“Etihad is now accepting passengers in all destinations who have a final destination in Europe or the UK, and we are doing everything possible to get them to their destination without delay,” he said.

He, however, warned that passengers should not yet expect their flight will run to schedule and advised them to check Etihad’s website or customer assistance lines prior to travel.

“[We] anticipated that if the airspace remained open, Etihad would return to normal operations within approximately 24 hours, and its priority would then be to clear the backlog,” he said.

Etihad has also operated two supplementary flights on Wednesday to Dublin and Milan via Munich, to help accommodate additional passengers.