Emirates ordered its pilots and cabin crew to continue to try to travel to Dubai International Airport on Tuesday, even as historic floods brought the entire city to a standstill and crisis management officials issued an urgent ‘stay at home’ advisory.
In a leaked internal memo sighted by ‘A Fly Guy’s Cabin Crew Lounge‘, the airline’s Divisional Senior Vice President of Service Delivery, Thomas Ney, told cabin crew that it was ‘important’ that they continue to make their way into work because the airline was still operating flights.
“We are operating our flights safely, and it’s important our operations carry on for the sake of our customers,” Ney wrote as the airfield of Dubai International Airport started to disappear under inches of flood water.
“If you are rostered for duty, please continue to make your way safely to work. Once you arrive at EGHQ (Emirates Group Headquarters), please report in for duty or report to the standby lounge,” the memo continued.
Images shared on social media showed Emirates cabin crew in full uniform wading through dangerous flood water with their luggage while another crew member was seen being plucked out of a submerged taxi.
Pictures taken from inside the building that Emirates cabin crew report for work showed flood water lapping up the sides of the windows with staffers effectively stuck inside the building.
Crew members told ex-Emirates manager Jay Roberts that they were expected to report for work or face the threat of being marked absent and then being disciplined.
As Dubai Airport went into meltdown on Tuesday afternoon, some crew said they were left abandoned on stranded aircraft that couldn’t go anywhere because of the flood water.
With conditions quickly deteriorating, inbound flights had to be diverted to alternative airports while Emirates continued to operate some outbound services. It wasn’t until Wednesday morning, however, that the airline suspended all check-in services at DXB, although crew were still expected to attend work to operate flights.
Dubai Airport said on Wednesday morning that it was “working hard to recover operations as quickly as possible in very challenging conditions,” but by Wednesday evening, the airport was forced to restrict access to Terminal 1 due to dangerous overcrowding.
Emirates did not respond to a request for comment.
