Dubai’s Emirates processes over 1.4 million refund requests; returns $1.4bn to customers

Dubai-based carrier Emirates has returned over Dhs5bn ($1.4bn) in Covid-19 related travel refunds to date, it announced on September 7.

More than 1.4 million refund requests have been processed since March, representing 90 per cent of the airline’s backlog.

The refunds include all requests received from customers worldwide up until the end of June, except the ones which require further manual review.

In July, the airline had asserted that it had processed nearly 650,000 refund requests in the past two months, returning over Dhs1.9bn to its customers due to several cancellations as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Read more: Dubai’s Emirates processes nearly 650,000 refund requests, returns over Dhs1.9bn to customers

Emirates has invested additional resources to ramp up its processing capabilities, and continues to work with industry partners to facilitate refunds for those who have booked their flights through travel agents. This includes enabling direct refunds processing via global booking systems (GDS).

Sir Tim Clark, president of Emirates Airline, said: “We understand that from our customers’ standpoint, each pending refund request is one too many. We are committed to honouring refunds and are trying our utmost to clear the massive and unprecedented backlog that was caused by the pandemic. Most cases are straightforward, and these we will process quickly. But there are cases which will take a bit more time for our customer teams to manually review and complete. We are grateful to our customers for their patience and understanding.”

Emirates returns over AED 5 billion (US$ 1.4 billion) to customers in COVID-19 related travel refunds and clears 90% of its refunds backlog, making strong and steady progress on its commitment to complete pending refunds. https://t.co/NVwmW2f0OA pic.twitter.com/YLEUthEAtF

— Emirates Airline (@emirates) September 7, 2020

As global travel markets reopen gradually, Emirates has restarted its passenger operations around the world. With the recent resumption of passenger services to Amman, Lagos and Abuja, the airline’s network will scale to 84 destinations this month.

Read more: Dubai’s Emirates to begin flights to three additional cities this week

Emirates also offers Covid-19 related cover to passengers, allowing customers to claim medical expenses of up to EUR150,000 and quarantine costs of EUR100 per day for 14 days, regardless of the class of travel or destination on flights undertaken until October 31.

Read: Dubai’s Emirates to be first airline to offer free cover for Covid-19 medical costs for passengers

The carrier has implemented safety and precautionary measures as well, including the distribution of complimentary hygiene kits containing masks, gloves, hand sanitiser and antibacterial wipes to all customers.

Emirates has confirmed that it will restore full salaries of its employees, beginning next month.

Read: Dubai’s Emirates to restore full salaries of employees from October