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Newly-wed couple miss three days of their dream honeymoon after flight delays due to ‘chaos’ at Dubai airport
22 April 2024, 08:12 | Updated: 22 April 2024, 08:50
A newly-wed couple missed three days of their honeymoon to Bali after their connecting flight was cancelled due to 'apocalyptic' flooding in Dubai.
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Ward Bonnefond and his wife were travelling to Bali from New York via Dubai for their dream honeymoon when their flight was caught up in the middle of a deadly storm.
The storm first pounded Oman last weekend, killing 21 people, before hitting the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Tuesday, wreaking havoc as the country experienced its heaviest rainfall since records began.
By the time Mr and Mrs Bonnefond landed in Dubai on Tuesday evening, the storm had already hit, and the airport was closed - forcing their plane to go into a holding pattern for around 90 minutes.
The couple were due to leave Dubai Airport for Bali at around 3.30am last Wednesday, but were initially told their flight was delayed for '30 minutes'.
The flight was then pushed back by 30 minutes, every 30 minutes, for 10 hours, before Emirates Airlines eventually cancelled their flight.
“We ended up missing three days of our honeymoon because of Emirates' actions and spent the majority of our time in the airport due to the way they handled the flight delays and cancelations,” Mr Bonnefond told LBC.
Dubai airport in chaos after torrential rain and heavy flooding
Inevitably, thousands of other passengers faced the same level of delays and cancellations due to the weather, with video footage showing the runways facing extreme flooding.
What ensued in their Emirates-only terminal, Mr Bonnefond says, was chaos.
Read More: Did controversial ‘cloud seeding’ flights cause torrential downpours and huge flooding in Dubai?
“The situation at the airport was a nightmare,” Mr Bonnefond said. “There was zero communication from Emirates and it was clear they had no plan in place for how to handle a major service disruption.”
Videos provided to LBC show dozens of passengers slumped on the floor trying to get sleep in between trying to find out whether their flights were going to take off.
Eventually, Mr and Mrs Bonneford left Dubai after three days. By this point, the situation had improved, though passengers were still facing four-hour delays, Mr Bonneford said.
LBC has contacted Emirates Airlines and Dubai Airport for comment.
Cars navigate streets after major flooding in Dubai
Dubai hit by mass flooding after year's worth of rainfall in a day
Dubai's torrential rain and violent thunderstorms led to planes swimming in floodwater and shopping malls being swamped.
Footage showed luxury cars submerged in deep water and waves buffeting the traffic while high-end muscle cars and Teslas struggled through the floods.
City authorities advised people to stay home after more than 4.7ins of rain fell last Tuesday - the typical yearly average in the city.
Shopping malls were left swamped too, with visitors seen wading through water at the Dubai Mall and Mall of the Emirates.
The city's skies turned dark mid-afternoon as the weather worsened. Lightning could be seen flashing across the sky, occasionally touching the tip of the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building.
