Middle East airlines are slowly starting to relaunch some services, after an unprecedented period in which most fleets have been largely grounded due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
It is a cautious return to the skies, though, with airlines focusing on repatriating stranded people wanting to get home or allowing transit passengers to pass through their airports.
Dubai’s Emirates resumed a limited number of passenger services from today, with four flights a week from Dubai to London Heathrow and three a week to Brussels, Frankfurt, Paris and Zurich. However, these flights are only carrying outbound passengers from the UAE. The only things heading back from Europe to Dubai will be the crew and cargo.
An Emirates aircraft takes off from Dubai International Airport on April 6, 2020, as Emirates … [+]
On board, things will be a little different too. There will be no magazines or other printed reading material and the packaging and presentation of food and drinks is being changed to minimize contact during meal service. Entry into airport lounges and the chauffeur service for business class passengers have also both been suspended.
Local rival Etihad Airways has been operating special flights over the past week to allow stranded passengers to return home to places like the U.S., Australia and Sri Lanka. It says that, in some instances, it has also been able to repatriate UAE citizens on the return legs to its home base in Abu Dhabi.
Yesterday it started to operate regular passenger services once more, albeit one-way only, starting with Incheon International Airport, which serves the South Korean capital Seoul. It says other destinations are due to follow, subject to government approvals, including Amsterdam, Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila, Melbourne and Singapore.
Over the weekend, Bahrain’s Gulf Air also said it was welcoming back transit passengers at Bahrain International Airport, although entry into Bahrain itself remains restricted to nationals and residents.
It remains a matter of speculation as to how quickly full services can resume. Emirates chief executive Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum said on April 2, “We hope to resume full operations as soon as possible,” but noted the many travel restrictions in place around the world which makes that impossible for now.
A few airlines have continued to fly throughout the crisis, with Qatar Airways most prominent among them. It is currently operating around 150 daily flights to more than 70 cities around the world (down from 160 destinations pre-crisis), although its timetable is in constant flux. “We are adjusting our flight schedules on a daily basis,” the airline’s chief executive Akbar Al Baker said on April 1.
From March 29, Qatar Airways increased its service to three Australian cities and added Brisbane to its route network for the first time. On the other hand, it suspended flights to New York’s JFK International on April 1 and Madrid Barajas Airport from April 4.
Stranded passengers
With so many airlines suspending their international operations, there is a backlog of demand for flights, not least from passengers stranded abroad and wanting to get home.
The situation in the UAE highlights how difficult the past few weeks has been for some. The UAE suspended almost all commercial flights from March 25, leaving some 600 passengers stranded at Dubai International Airport – unable to enter the country and unable to take an onward flight. Most of them have either been repatriated or allowed into the UAE following health checks and ahead of a quarantine period. However, as of April 3, some ten days after the lockdown was imposed, some 91 passengers were still stranded at the airport, where staff have provided them with food and drink.
While some airlines are taking to the skies again, others are taking a different approach. Turkish Airlines suspended almost all of its international flights from March 27 until April 17. The handful of overseas destinations left on its schedule comprise Addis Ababa, Hong Kong, Moscow New York and Washington D.C., alongside a reduced domestic schedule.
All this is costing the aviation industry huge amounts of money. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has forecast that airlines in the Middle East will lose $19 billion in passenger revenue this year, representing a 39% drop in income compared to last year. The worst hit market is expected to be Saudi Arabia, with $5.6 billion of lost revenue, followed by the UAE with $5.4 billion.
One of the few bright spots is the rising demand for cargo, which is leading many airlines to repurpose their passenger planes to use as ad hoc freighters.
