Emirates has revealed it has now refunded passengers nearly $2 billion for flights affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Dubai-owned airline said the 1.4 million requests it’s processed so far worldwide amount to 90 per cent of its huge backlog.
Emirates president Sir Tim Clark 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.”
Separately, World of Aviation has reported how Emirates has received a $2 billion bailout from Dubai’s government and has been told further support could follow depending on the length of the coronavirus crisis.
A bond prospectus, obtained by Reuters, said its state owner has been injecting the money into the business since March.
It comes despite the business asking its cabin crew staff to take unpaid leave yet still ploughing on with its plan to reopen more than 50 per cent of its pre-COVID routes in September.
The airline laid off over a thousand employees back in June, including 700 cabin crew and 600 pilots, most of whom flew the superjumbo Airbus A380 or were in training for type-rating the aircraft.
Before the crisis hit, Emirates employed some 60,000 staff, including 4,300 pilots and nearly 22,000 cabin crew, according to its annual report.
