Emirates refunds AED 1.9 billion for flight cancellations

Our Correspondent

Dubai-based Emirates airline has processed nearly 650,000 refund requests, returning over AED 1.9 billion to its customers in the past two months, delivering on its promise to passengers after the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted travel plans for millions of customers around the world. This was announced by the airline in a statement on July 2.
In April when there were nearly half a million refund requests, Emirates had announced that it would speed up refunds and clear its backlog by August. It expanded its processing capability from an average of 35,000 requests a month to nearly 200,000.
Calling the pandemic a black swan event, Emirates’ Chief Commercial Officer Adnan Kazim said it impacted travellers and hitting the airline and travel industry hard. He added: “Our average processing time for refunds has reduced from 90 days to 60, and as we see lower volumes of new requests we expect this rate to further improve. We still have over half a million refund requests to manage, and expect to clear these within the next 2 months.”
Emirates currently offers travellers flights to over 50 cities through its hub in Dubai. Dubai had recently announced that it will welcome international visitors from July 7.