The heavy rain and flooding in the UAE has left many passengers travelling from or to Kolkata stranded at the Dubai airport for hours as flights continue to get delayed and cancelled.
Sources at the Kolkata airport said the evening flight between Dubai and Kolkata did not operate on Wednesday.
The Emirates flight from Dubai did not arrive on Thursday morning. An airport official said an Emirates flight arrived from Dubai around 1.15pm on Thursday and it returned later in the day.
Many Kolkatans who were booked on Emirates flights to Dubai and beyond have rebooked their tickets, tour operators said.
Several passengers said they had to wait for hours at the Dubai airport and airline personnel were unable to say when flights would operate again.
Suvojit Dutta Roy, a doctor in Manchester who was travelling to Kolkata on an Emirates flight, was stranded at the Dubai airport for 29 hours. He reached Kolkata on the Thursday afternoon flight, without his two pieces of luggage.
Dutta Roy had boarded an Emirates flight in Manchester on April 16 and was to arrive in Kolkata at 8.15am on Wednesday.
“I had access to the first-class lounge and could have slept there. But I could not sleep because I was scared that the airline would send me a message about boarding and I would miss it. There was utter chaos at the Dubai airport. No one could say when the flight would take off,” Dutta Roy said on Thursday.
The airport was already chaotic when he landed there around 3.30am (local time).
“Only one airline employee was sitting at a counter and thousands of passengers were in the queue to get an update,” said Dutta Roy. “I went to the first class lounge where the lady at a counter said my flight had been rescheduled, but there was no clarity on the departure time.”
He got a message around 1pm (local time) and approached the boarding gate.
“Many passengers coming to Kolkata from all over the world were stranded. The information display board showed further delays. Around 3pm, an airline employee said pilots, crew members and other airline and airport staff could not reach the airport as their areas were flooded,” he said. “The man said the airline’s hangar was flooded, too.”
Dutta Roy went back to the lounge. Early on Thursday, he got a WhatsApp message from a fellow passenger that boarding would take place.
“I have been travelling for 24 years but never faced such a situation,” said Dutta Roy. After arriving in Kolkata, he found that his two pieces of registered luggage had not arrived.
“I got a mail from the airline acknowledging that my luggage had not arrived,” he said.
A group of 34 passengers from Kolkata, on their way to Jeddah for Umrah, was stranded at the Dubai airport since 2pm (local time) on April 17. Late in the evening (IST), the group had no clue when their flight would take off.
“Customers impacted by flight cancellations should contact their booking agent or Emirates office for rebooking,” said a message from Emirates on the airline’s X handle.
“There may still be delays in arriving and departing flights. Please check the latest flight schedules on http://emirat.es/flightstatus.”