Emirates has taken steps to expand its refund processing capacity to help ease the current backlog. Currently around 35,000 refunds are processed per month, however the airline is increasing this capacity to 150,000 to cope with demand.
The airline has warned that although the overhaul will speed up refunds, it may still take until “early August” for the half a million pending refund requests to be dealt with.
Emirates President Sir Tim Clark said: “It is a difficult time for us, as it is for all airlines.
“We are dipping into our cash reserves by being proactive in processing refunds, but it is our duty and responsibility.
“We would like to assure our customers and trade partners that we will honour refunds, and that we are doing our best to speed things up.”
“The situation was dynamic in the early weeks of the pandemic, but we have since rewritten our Covid-19 waiver policy into a simple, globally-applied approach that puts customers first,” he continued.
“We’ve also proactively contacted those customers who had submitted earlier requests for refunds or booking changes, to let them know of the new options available to them.
“We sincerely hope our customers and trade partners will choose to book and fly with Emirates again at a later time.
“For those who have opted to hold their tickets or exchange it for travel vouchers, we look forward to welcoming you on our flights again soon. Announcements will be made whenever we are able to resume services,” he added.
