As the damage caused to the runway was extensive, Dubai Airport remains inaccessible and no flights are being accommodated.
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“Due to reduced capacity we are having to prioritise arriving and departing flights to make the best use of available runway to clear the backlog”, the facility’s operator, Dubai Airports, said in a statement.
An Emirates flight from India with 300 people on board crash landed at Dubai’s main airport Wednesday, sending black smoke billowing into the air and halting all traffic at the Middle East’s busiest airport.
Meanwhile, inclement weather at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) has forced the authorities to delay or cancel flights on several sectors.
Ms. Jeri, a Dubai resident from Ethiopia whose flight from terminal one to Addis Ababa was cancelled on Wednesday said “everything was handled very professionally”.
Jet Airways, IndiGo and SpiceJet cancelled their flights to Dubai scheduled to operate on Thursday. FlyDubai, the sheikhdom’s low-priced carrier, said it had cancelled 20 flights.
Mr Learmount said the crew acted in line with protocol by evacuating all passengers.
The cause of the crash-landing of Flight No. EK521, a Boeing 777-300 coming from the southern Indian city of Thiruvananthapuram, also remained unclear.
Speaking about the causalities, he said: Medical teams dealt with 13 persons with minor injuries, who left after a short time. Emirates further confirmed to the Associated Press that there were no fatalities and that all 282 passengers and 18 crew members are safe. Some inbound flights were diverted to other regional airports. Although all passengers were evacuated safely, one firefighter died while responding to the plane that burst into flames. On Wednesday, while the Indigo-Thiruvananthapuram flight to Dubai and Fly Dubai airlines Thiruvananthapuram-Dubai flight were cancelled, Air India Express operated its flight from here by diverting the aircraft to Sharjah as the Dubai airport was closed.
The airlines said this was primarily as Dubai airport has announced limited operations up to August 5.
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About 19,000 passengers were affected by the disruptions, it said.
