Record rainfall in UAE disrupts travel at deluged Dubai airport

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Four flights from Thiruvananthapuram to UAE have been canceled due to heavy rainfall in UAE. Emirates and Air India Express flights to Dubai and Indigo and Air Arabia flights to Sharjah have been cancelled.

Earlier, five flights from Nedumbassery were canceled due to heavy rains in UAE. All three flights to Dubai and one each to Sharjah and Doha were cancelled. FEZ 454 of FlyDubai, 6E1475 of IndiGo and EK533 of Emirates to Dubai were cancelled.

Air Arabia flight G9423 to Sharjah and IndiGo flight 6E1343 to Doha have been canceled and the final decision on rescheduling will be taken keeping in view the rain situation in the UAE.

Flights from Kozhikode to these destinations have also been affected. ________________________________________________________________________

DUBAI airport, one of the world’s busiest, on Wednesday advised passengers not to head to the hub “unless absolutely necessary,” after the city suffered flooding from the heaviest rainfall seen in decades.

The airport said flights are being delayed and diverted.

“We are working hard to recover operations as quickly as possible in very challenging conditions,” the airport added in a social media post.

Footage circulating on social media showed the airport’s runways flooded and planes attempting to navigate pools of water.

Emirates, Dubai’s flagship carrier, said it has suspended check-in at the Dubai airport for departing passengers until midnight due to what it called “operational challenges” caused by bad weather and road conditions.

At least 20 flights, due to depart from Dubai airport, were cancelled on Tuesday, affecting destinations, including India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom, the UAE newspaper The National reported.

Roads leading to the airport remained blocked and flooded, it added.

The government of Dubai said it had extended remote working for all its employees until Wednesday, and urged private sector institutions to do the same.

On Tuesday, the UAE was lashed by downpours described by its National Centre of Meteorology as the heaviest rainfall in the past 75 years.

As a result, the federal government announced extending remote working for all state employees to Wednesday.

At least one person died after his car was swept away by floods in the emirate of Ras Al Khaima, police said.

The man, a UAE citizen, was in his 70s.

In neighbouring Oman, at least 18 people died after the country was hit by torrential rains.