Emirates has processed nearly 650,000 refund requests and returned over Dh1.9 billion to its customers in the past two months, the Dubai-based airline announced on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Emirates) has made good on its promise to expedite refunds after the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted travel plans for millions of customers around the world,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n
In April, Emirates had announced that it would ramp up its refunds capabilities and committed to clear its backlog by August, which at that time stood at nearly half a million requests. The airline had crossed that target by early June, after expanding its processing capability from an average of 35,000 requests a month to nearly 200,000.<\/p>\n
Adnan Kazim, Emirates\u2019 Chief Commercial Officer, said: \u201cThis pandemic is a black swan event no one expected, impacting travelers and hitting the airline and travel industry hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAt Emirates, we\u2019ve earned our customers\u2019 trust over the years and we value that greatly. It is tough times for everyone, but we are committed to doing what\u2019s right by our customers. That\u2019s why we ringfenced cash to honour refunds, and invested resources to expedite processing,\u201d he underlined.<\/p>\n
Emirates noted its average processing time for refunds has reduced from 90 days to 60, and with lower volumes of new requests, this rate is expected to further improve.<\/p>\n
Kazim added, \u201cWe still have over half a million refund requests to manage, and expect to clear these within the next two months.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emirates said it will continually review its booking policies and travel products to offer customers added confidence to plan and book their journeys.<\/p>\n
At present, Emirates offers flights to over 50 cities, with connections between the Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and the Asia Pacific through its hub in Dubai.<\/p>\n
Dubai, meanwhile, has recently announced that it will re-open to welcome international visitors beginning July 7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Airline commits to clear backlog by August Emirates has processed nearly 650,000 refund requests and returned over Dh1.9 billion to its customers in the past two months, the Dubai-based airline announced on Thursday. \u201c(Emirates) has made good on its promise to expedite refunds after the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted travel plans for millions of customers around […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41745,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,2],"tags":[3130,776],"class_list":["post-49257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-featured","tag-emirates","tag-travel"],"yoast_head":"\n