Dubai passengers confused about flight updates

Dubai : A day after the tragic fire that gutted the Emirates Boeing 777 EK521 in Dubai, airport operations have yet to normalise.

Once you arrive at Terminal 2 in Dubai, long lines snake through the departures hall with the most populated counters being the FlyDubai flights to India.

While I was eager to begin my journey to Europe, the airport staff were quick and efficient to hand me my boarding pass with the lines for flights going to Europe being a lot shorter.

However I began to notice a problem after several hours went by after the scheduled departure time with no word from the airport or Pegasus on the status quo of operations.

As you walk into the gate area just past duty free, you're swamped by the sight of a sea of people sleeping on the carpets, covered in makeshift blankets. Some of the passengers have been stuck in limbo for over 24 hours. There's are hardly any seats free and the atmosphere is tense as people press staff to figure out when they can get onto the next flight to their destination.

After my flight to Istanbul was delayed the only information the airport staff would give passengers was that the flight had been diverted to Ras Al Khaimah and had to first be given permission to land in Dubai which unfortunately couldn't happen within the stipulated time as only a runway was functional.

Suddenly at 5am, 40 minutes after the flight was supposed to take off, the screen at the gate changes to a FlyDubai-Amman flight announcement. Bewildered passengers at this point find out from flight radar that the Pegasus flight was cancelled and had to walk up to the information desk who couldn't give them any more information.

Australian passenger Brian Wright who was returning from the trip across Africa and heading to London told Khaleej Timesthat he had to call up the ground staff of airport operations to get the number of the Pegasus airline manager.

"I had to use my own mobile phone which is on roaming to make the call and ask the ground staff to come and help give us more information on what to do now," he said.

The only information the passengers got was that the flight was cancelled for the next two days and full refund would be given after 40 days and that they would have to wait a few more hours at the airport before they could clear immigration and customs again to cancel their boarding passes and illicit their luggage.

Passengers without valid visas or residence IDs had to stay in the terminal while the rest of us were herded through immigration, again a process which took over an hour.

The only customer service from Pegasus was an inoperable phone number scribbled on a wall.

Many passengers were looking at other options to continue their journey with some who could afford to do so, headed to Abu Dhabi or Sharjah.

Turkish citizen Ahmad Beyoglu had been stuck at the airport for over 24 hours.

"My flight yesterday was cancelled and today's and tomorrow's has been cancelled as well. My wife has been waiting for me in Istanbul for a day now. I'll probably get onto the 11.35pm flight from Sharjah airport as the airline cannot confirm if the flight will be operational or not."

While Dubai's efforts to provide free Wi-Fi and refreshments to soften the blow was admirable, it did little to soothe the fraying tempers of passengers.