Today has been rather fast-moving with Emirates – who initially announced a major cut of their network, followed by a suspension of their entire network.
The airline has updated its release as of 19:30 Dubai Time. Let’s dive in with what’s changed.
Emirates Boeing 777-300ER at Hamburg Airport – Image, Economy Class and Beyond
Where we were looking at a total network shutdown earlier, it seems that the airline is keeping parts of their network alive to bring people home as needed.
The updated quote says:
HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Group said:
“The world has literally gone into quarantine due to the COVID-19 outbreak. This is an unprecedented crisis situation in terms of breadth and scale: geographically, as well as from a health, social, and economic standpoint. Until January 2020, the Emirates Group was doing well against our current financial year targets. But COVID-19 has brought all that to a sudden and painful halt over the past 6 weeks.
“As a global network airline, we find ourselves in a situation where we cannot viably operate passenger services until countries re-open their borders, and travel confidence returns. By Wednesday 25 March, although we will still operate cargo flights which remain busy, Emirates will have temporarily suspended most of its passenger operations. We continue to watch the situation closely, and as soon as things allow, we will reinstate our services.”
According to the airline, they have received requests from both governments and passengers to aid in the repatriation of travellers.
Therefore, the airline Emirates will continue to operate passenger and cargo flights to the following countries and territories until further notice (as long as borders remain open, and there is demand exists)
- United Kingdom
- Switzerland
- Hong Kong
- Thailand
- Malaysia
- Philippines
- Japan
- Singapore
- South Korea
- Australia
- South Africa
- United States of America
If you’re travelling, keep an eye on Emirates.com as the situation is very fluid and changes will happen.
Opinion: Getting the message out right first time would have helped
It seems Emirates has fallen into the same trap United Airlines made – Ground its entire operation without consultation, only to find latent demand is still out there to get people home.
And in these times, getting the message out right the first time is so important.
Whilst the move will allow those who need to move to keep moving, for some – its a bit too little, too late, as it adds confusion to the matter.
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