17 Apr 2024

Flooding at Dubai International Airport, arriving flights diverted due to storm

11:17 am on 17 April 2024
Dubai Airport is flooded, with numerous flights cancelled.

Flydubai flights has cancelled all flights departing Dubai. Photo: Screenshot

Flydubai temporally suspended all of its flights departing from Dubai until Wednesday morning due to bad weather, UAE state news agency WAM reported.

"All flydubai flights scheduled for departure from Dubai this evening (16 April) have been cancelled effective immediately until 10am (Dubai local time) on 17 April. During this period, passengers who do not have Dubai as their final destination will not be accepted for travel," a flydubai spokesperson said.

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Dubai International Airport (DXB) had been temporarily diverting arriving flights on Tuesday evening until weather conditions improve, while keeping the departures operational.

Two flights from Dubai - to Auckland, and Christchurch via Sydney - have been delayed.

Emirates flights set to depart to Dubai from both centres on Wednesday night have not yet been affected.

The website for Dubai airport, one of the world's busiest, shows dozens of flights on 16 April delayed or cancelled, with affected destinations including India, Pakistan, Saudi and the United Kingdom.

Adverse weather hit other locations in the Gulf Peninsula, including Oman, where at least 18 people have been killed due to heavy rains in recent days, its state news agency said.

Operations at DXB were suspended for 25 minutes earlier on Tuesday because of the storm.

The Flightradar24 website shows average delays of just under two hours for flights arriving and departing DXB.

Vehicles are stranded on a flooded street following torrential rain in the Gulf Emirate of Dubai on April 16, 2024. Torrential rains and high winds lashed parts of the Gulf on April 16, as the death toll from storms in Oman rose to 18, many of them children. Flights were cancelled in Dubai, the region's financial hub, while schools were shut in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. (Photo by Giuseppe CACACE / AFP)

Vehicles stranded on a flooded street following torrential rain in the Dubai on 16 April, 2024. Photo: AFP/Giuseppe Cacace

- Reuters / RNZ