Emirates has returned more than $1.4 billion in Covid-19 related travel refunds to date, the carrier revealed today.
More than 1.4 million refund requests have been completed since March, representing 90% of the airline’s backlog.
This includes all requests received from customers around the world up until the end of June, except “a few cases” which require further manual review.
The Dubai-based airline is making “strong and steady progress” on a commitment to customers to complete pending refunds.
Emirates has invested additional resources to ramp up its processing capability since the pandemic hit.
The airline also continues to work with industry partners to facilitate refunds for those who have booked flights through travel agents, this includes enabling direct refunds processing via global booking systems.
President Sir Tim Clark said: “We understand that from our customers’ standpoint, each pending refund request is one too many.
“We are committed to honouring refunds and are trying our utmost to clear the massive and unprecedented backlog that was caused by the pandemic. Most cases are straightforward, and these we will process quickly.
“But there are cases which will take a bit more time for our customer teams to manually review and complete. We are grateful to our customers for their patience and understanding.”
Emirates has gradually restarted passenger operations as global travel markets slowly reopen and currently offers flights to more than 80 cities
Covid-19 PCR tests are mandatory for all inbound and transit passengers arriving to Dubai and the UAE, including UAE citizens, residents and tourists, irrespective of the country they are coming from.