Emirates cancels flights across network by March 25, 2020

Updates at the end of this story

Since the COVID-19 outbreak began, Emirates and dnata have been adapting operations in line with regulatory directives as well as travel demand. The airline has aimed to maintain passenger flights for as long as feasible to help travellers return home amidst an increasing number of travel bans, restrictions, and country lockdowns across the world. It continues to maintain vital international air cargo links for economies and communities, deploying its fleet of 777 freighters for the transport of essential goods, including medical supplies across the world.

With many of its airline customers dramatically reducing flights or ceasing services altogether, dnata has also significantly reduced its operations, including temporarily shutting some offices across its international network.

Emirates has now decided that it will wrap up its commercial operations for the time being, and resume it when commercially viable. Here are the comments of the Chairman of Emirates.

HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Group said: “The world has literally gone into quarantine due to the COVID-19 outbreak. This is an unprecedented crisis situation in terms of breadth and scale: geographically, as well as from a health, social, and economic standpoint. Until January 2020, the Emirates Group was doing well against our current financial year targets. But COVID-19 has brought all that to a sudden and painful halt over the past 6 weeks.

“As a global network airline, we find ourselves in a situation where we cannot viably operate passenger services until countries re-open their borders, and travel confidence returns. By Wednesday 25 March, although we will still operate cargo flights which remain busy, Emirates will have temporarily suspended all its passenger operations. We continue to watch the situation closely, and as soon as things allow, we will reinstate our services.

“Emirates Group has a strong balance sheet and substantial cash liquidity, and we can, and will, with appropriate and timely action, survive through a prolonged period of reduced flight schedules, so that we are adequately prepared for the return to normality.”

Cost reduction measures

The Emirates Group has undertaken a series of measures to contain costs, as the outlook for travel demand remains weak across markets in the short to medium term. This includes:

Postponing or cancelling discretionary expenditure
A freeze on all non-essential recruitment and consultancy work
Working with suppliers to find cost savings and efficiency
Encouraging employees to take paid or unpaid leave in light of the reduced flying capacity
A temporary reduction of basic salary for the majority of Emirates Group employees for three months, ranging from 25% to 50%. Employees will continue to be paid their other allowances during this time. Junior-level employees will be exempt from basic salary reduction
Presidents of Emirates and dnata – Sir Tim Clark and Gary Chapman – will take a 100% basic salary cut for three months

On the decision to reduce basic salary, Sheikh Ahmed said: “Rather than ask employees to leave the business, we chose to implement a temporary basic salary cut as we want to protect our workforce and keep our talented and skilled people, as much as possible. We want to avoid cutting jobs. When demand picks up again, we also want to be able to quickly ramp up and resume services for our customers.

“The Emirates Group has strong liquidity, with a healthy cash position, but it is prudent that it take steps to reduce costs at this time. Emirates remains committed to serving its markets and looks forward to resuming a normal flight schedule as soon as that is permitted by the relevant authorities.”

Emirates passenger fleet is made up of:

115 Airbus A380
10 Boeing 777-200LR
134 Boeing 777-300ER

Emirates had earlier cancelled about 75% of its network over the past couple of days, which would be 111 destinations:

Abidjan (via Accra): From 21 March – 20 May
Abuja: From 23 March – until further notice
Accra: From 21 March – 20 May
Adelaide: From 23 March – 20 May
Ahmedabad: From 23 March – 28 March
Algiers: From 18 March – 20 May
Amman: From 17 March – 30 April
Athens: From 23 March- 30 June
Auckland (via Bali): From 29 March – 30 June
Auckland: From 29 March – 30 June
Baghdad: From 17 March – 30 April
Bahrain: From 29 March – 30 June
Bali: From 29 March – 30 June
Bangkok: From 23 March – until further notice
Bangkok–Hong Kong: From 9 March – 20 May
Barcelona: From 20 March – 20 May
Basra: From 17 March – 30 April
Beijing: From 23 March – until further notice
Beirut: From 17 March – 30 April
Bengaluru: From 23 March – 28 March
Bologna: From 13 March – 20 May
Brisbane: From 29 March – 30 June
Brussels: From 26 March – 30 June
Budapest: From 13 March – 20 May
Buenos Aires (via Rio de Janeiro): From 25 March – 20 May
Cairo: From 19 March – 30 June
Casablanca: From 16 March – 30 June
Cebu/Clark: From 29 March- 30 June
Chennai: From 22 March – 28 March
Chicago: From 27 March – 30 June
Christchurch (via Sydney): From 29 March – 30 June
Cochin: From 23 March – 30 June
Colombo (via Male): From 23 March – 30 June
Conakry: From 22 March – 19 May
Dakar (via Conakry): From 22 March – 19 May
Dammam: From 09 March – 30 April
Delhi: From 22 March – 28 March
Dhaka: From 22 March- 31 March
Dubai–Bangkok: From 23 March until further notice, passengers can only travel from Bangkok to Dubai as directed by Thai authorities.
Dubai–Colombo: From 19 March – 25 March. During this time, passengers can only travel from Colombo to Dubai as directed by Sri Lankan authorities.
Dubai–Hanoi: From 18 March – 22 March. During this time, passengers can only travel from Hanoi to Dubai as directed by Vietnamese authorities.
Dubai–Ho Chi Minh: From 18 March – 24 March. During this time, passengers can only travel from Ho Chi Minh to Dubai as directed by Vietnamese authorities.
Dubai–Mauritius: From 20 March – 2 April. During this time, passengers can only travel from Mauritius to Dubai as directed by Mauritian authorities.
Dubai–Phuket: From 23 March until further notice, passengers can only travel from Phuket to Dubai as directed by Thai authorities.
Durban: From 24 March – 20 May
Dusseldorf: From 23 March – until further notice
Edinburgh: From 25 March – 30 June
Entebbe: From 23 March – 23 April
Fort Lauderdale: From 13 March – 30 June
Frankfurt: From 23 March – until further notice
Geneva: From 23 March – 30 June
Guangzhou: From 05 February – 30 April
Hamburg: From 23 March – until further notice
Hanoi: From 23 March – 30 June
Harare (via Lusaka): From 20 March – 20 May
Ho Chi Minh: From 25 March – 30 June
Houston: From 27 March – 30 June
Hyderabad: From 22 March – 28 March
Islamabad: From 22 March – until further notice
Istanbul (IST): From 17 March – 20 May
Istanbul (SAW): From 17 March – 20 May
Jeddah: From 16 March – 30 April
Kabul: From 26 March – 30 June
Karachi: From 22 March – until further notice
Khartoum: From 18 March – 20 May
Kolkata: From 23 March – 28 March
Kuwait City: From 14 March – 30 April
Lagos: From 23 March – until further notice
Larnaca: From 17 March – 20 May
Lahore: From 22 March – until further notice
Lisbon: From 19 March – 30 April
London Stansted: From 25 March – 30 June
Luanda: From 22 March – 20 May
Lusaka: From 20 March – 20 May
Lyon: From 23 March – until further notice
Madrid: From 18 March – 20 May
Malta (via Larnaca): From 17 March – 20 May
Mauritius: 25 March – 30 June
Medina: From 05 March – 30 April
Melbourne (via Singapore): From 23 March – 20 May
Melbourne: From 29 March – 30 June
Mexico City (via Barcelona): From 20 March – 20 May
Milan: From 15 March – 20 May
Moscow: From 30 March – 30 June
Mumbai: From 22 March – 28 March
Munich: From 23 March – until further notice
Muscat: From 22 March – 05 April
New York EWR (via Athens): From 13 March – 20 May
New York EWR: From 24 March – until further notice
New York JFK (via Milan): From 11 March – 20 May
New York JFK: From 24 March – until further notice
Newcastle: From 25 March – 30 June
Nice: From 23 March – until further notice
Orlando: From 24 March – 30 June
Osaka: From 26 March – 30 June
Oslo: From 28 March – 30 June
Paris: From 23 March – until further notice
Peshawar: From 22 March – until further notice
Phnom Penh (via Bangkok): From 29 March – 30 June
Phuket: From 23 March – until further notice
Porto: From 17 March – 20 May
Prague: From 25 March – 30 June
Rio de Janeiro: From 25 March – 20 May
Riyadh: From 16 March – 30 April
Rome: From 15 March – 20 May
Saint Petersburg: From 30 March – 30 June
San Francisco: 29 March – 30 June
Santiago (via Rio de Janeiro): From 25 March – 20 May
Seattle: From 26 March – 30 June
Shanghai: From 05 February – 30 April
Sialkot: From 22 March – until further notice
Stockholm: From 26 March – 30 June
Taipei: From 16 March – 20 May
Tehran: From 26 February – 30 April
Trivandrum: From 22 March – 28 March
Tunis: From 18 March – 20 May
Venice: From 12 March – 20 May
Vienna: From 23 March – 30 June
Warsaw: From 15 March – 20 May

While we had already tracked the first round of aircraft headed into grounding a few days ago, it will now mean the entire Dubai Airport (DXB as well as DWC) both will be full of airframes not going anywhere.

Was just curious to see how is this #COVID19 crisis affecting the super-connector, #Emirates. 8 A380s sent for storage to DWC, 12 in DXB, might be pulled up for a flight but sent back in parking bays for long after. 7 77Ws are also the same fate. 115 A380s & 134 77Ws in fleet. pic.twitter.com/PW4m0HymvK

— Ajay Awtaney (@LiveFromALounge) March 13, 2020

Watch this space for more updates, and if you have a flight with Emirates in the next 72 hours, it would be wise to confirm if it is flying or not.

Update 1: Emirates seems to have reversed its decision to not fly at all. Emirates will operate some flights to the UK, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Philippines, Japan, Singapore, Australia, South Africa, South Korea, USA and Canada.

Update 2: As per the UAE government’s directive, Emirates will temporarily suspend all passenger services for two weeks starting from 25 March 2020.

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