Signal as much as Simon Calder’s free journey e-mail for professional recommendation and money-saving reductions
Get Simon Calder’s Journey e-mail
Flights out and in of Dubai are being affected by adversarial climate situations across the UAE, resulting in delays, diversions and cancellations throughout 16 April and 17 April.
Thunder, lightning, hail and heavy rainfall have hit Dubai, with faculties and authorities entities instructed to work at home. Residents have been urged to remain inside the place potential and solely go away their houses “in instances of maximum necessity”.
The web site for Dubai Aiport – one of many world’s busiest airports, which welcomed over 86 million passengers in 2023 – is at present displaying that there are a minimum of 20 cancelled flights on 16 April, with dozens extra delayed. Affected locations included cities round India and Pakistan, in addition to Saudi Arabia and Manchester.
Along with Dubai, the encircling emirates of Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah and Al Ain had been all placed on alert. Hostile climate hit areas together with Abu Dhabi on Monday 15 April. There have been extra stories of flooded highways, whereas in neighbouring Oman, 18 folks have been killed on account of heavy rains in latest days.
Photographs confirmed a deluge of rainwater on roads round Dubai, with automobiles struggling to drive by means of flood highways.
Airways together with Emirates are urging passengers to reach on the airport as much as 4 hours earlier than their scheduled flight time, whereas a tweet from Dubai’s Highway and Transport Authority learn: “If you happen to’re travelling from #DXB at the moment, remember to enable additional time to get to the airport and use the Dubai Metro, the place potential. The metro working hours have now been prolonged until 3AM tonight.”
Passengers on flights scheduled to depart Dubai are suggested to make use of the flydubai web site to trace their flight standing.
A spokesperson for Dubai Airport informed The Unbiased: “Dubai Airports can verify that operations proceed to be considerably disrupted at Dubai Worldwide (DXB) on account of heavy rain and flooding on Tuesday, 16 April. As a result of intense storm, operations had been quickly suspended for 25 minutes this afternoon, however have since recommenced, and are actually in restoration mode.
“A complete of 21 outbound and 24 inbound flights have been cancelled since 00:02hrs LT this morning, and three flights had been diverted to different neighbouring airports.
“We urge company to test instantly with their airline to acquire the most recent info on the standing of their flight, enable important additional journey time to the airport, and use Dubai Metro for smoother transit, which has prolonged working hours till 03:00 hrs LT tonight.”
Recommendation from the Nationwide Emergency Disaster and Catastrophe Administration Authority contains recommending “preventive measures for heavy rain and hailstorms to minimise impacts on properties” and “parking autos in distant, protected and elevated areas”.
