Emirates flight had to leave Ahmedabad with zero passenger to Dubai

On cancellation of its Ahmedabad-Dubai flight on Sunday morning due to water logging inside the terminal of Ahmedabad international airport terminal, Emirates has issued following press release:

“Emirates confirms that due to the waterlogging at the International terminal of the Ahmedabad International airport today, the passengers of flight EK 541scheduled to depart at 09.35 hours local time were not able to enter the terminal and not permitted to check-in by the respective local authorities. As a result the flight had to depart for Dubai with no passengers on board.”

“Emirates have directed all passengers to re-book their flights and have specially opened their ticketing office on Sunday (August 8, 2010) for this purpose. Also in order to accommodate the affected passengers Emirates will be deploying a larger capacity aircraft, a Boeing B777 extended range on Monday, August 9, 2010 to Ahmedabad for the flight EK 539 scheduled to depart at 04.25 hours local time.”

“Although as per the DGCA directive and regulations no airline is responsible to compensate the passengers during a natural calamity such as this, Emirates is undertaking all possible means to assist the affected passengers in the best possible way.”

“Emirates regrets the inconvenience cause to its passengers as a result of these unforseen circumstances.”

It should be mentioned that Emirates was the only one flight canceled on Sunday morning in Ahmedabad. Other flights(Qatar and Air Arabia) could be operated because their passengers had already completed custom checking, before power failure on airport. However when Emirates passengers turn came for custom checking, the airport was so waterlogged that power had to be cut off by the authority. Thus their departure custom process could not be carried out, and therefore the flight flew to Dubai with zero passenger, something historical!