Dubai Airport Back in Action after 2-day shut down due to storm

Over a thousand flights have been cancelled or rescheduled as the airport remains flooded; however, Emirates announces reopens in check-ins, urges passengers to not travel unnecessarily. 

18 April 2024

By Payoshi Bisht

Dubai has been grappling with severe thunderstorms and flooding due to extreme rainfall for the past few days now. It has hampered the city in every way possible as it has been reportedly hit by many storms. People have taken to their social media handles to post about the havoc they are experiencing in their homes or nearby areas. 

Dubai Airport is also being severely affected. Over 1,200 flights were cancelled in the past two days as a result of adverse weather conditions, which made air travel unsafe. However, after being shut for 2 days, there has been an update from the Dubai International Airport on Thursday stating that it is restarting check-ins and welcoming in-bound flights again.

The decision is to make Terminal 1 operational for travelling. The roads and area surrounding the airport are heavily flooded and are causing restrictions in travelling. Hence, to minimise traffic and congestion during air travel, the authorities have urged citizens to only travel if it is an emergency or “absolutely necessary”.

Flights are reportedly experiencing delays or even cancellation due to bad weather conditions; therefore, passengers are being requested to keep an eye out for latest updates on their respective flights and keep up with the status. 

Terminal 1 at the Dubai International Airport has a capacity of 50 international airlines and accommodates up to 20 million passengers in a year, as per the airport statistics. Emirates Airline has recently tweeted on X (link to the tweet of Emirates), giving passengers an update about restarting check-ins for air travel. They have also requested passengers to contact their booking agents for queries and also informed them about possible delays in flight timings. 

It is quite a challenging time for Dubai as the city handles aircraft backlogs and keeps travel going alongside the bad weather conditions, as per the statement given by the Chief Executive of Dubai Airport, Paul Griffiths.