Emirates has flown a bunch of unlucky passengers half way across the Indian Ocean and then turned around and flown back to Dubai due to Auckland Airport being flooded.
Emirates passengers on a recent flight got more flight time than they bargained for, with flooding at Auckland Airport making conditions unsafe to land. Instead of diverting to Christchurch, Sydney, Melbourne or Adelaide, they flew all the way back to Dubai.
Umm pic.twitter.com/lR9aQZDPGO
— David Cormack (@David_Cormack) January 27, 2023
Emirates flight EK448 from Dubai to Auckland – one of the longest flights in the world, even on a good day, at 14200km – took quite a while longer in getting to Auckland than anyone expected on the weekend. The flight was meant to leave Dubai at 10:30AM on Friday, and land in Auckland at 11:20AM on Saturday.
That’s not how things turned out though. After about 6 and a half hours of the A380 flying over the Indian Ocean, the decision was made to turn around and head back to Dubai, due to the conditions at Auckland airport.
Twitter user Robbie Wood said: “Not the longest flight in the world anymore, but this Dubai-Auckland flight probably feels like it today. With Auckland Airport closed due to flooding, Emirates decided to return to Dubai. Looking at about a 13.5 hour flight from Dubai to Dubai.”
Other Social media users dubbed it a “flight to nowhere,” at best calling it “sub optimal” and at worst calling it ridiculous, asking why the flight couldn’t have stopped somewhere nearer to New Zealand rather than turning around.
Then Emirates has an A380 stuck in Christchurch and needs to find hotels for everyone, ensure the crew rests, and then figure out how to get everyone back up to Auckland once the airport opens. Easier to manage the situation with everyone and the aircraft in Dubai.
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) January 27, 2023
Not all airports can just take an extra A380 at a moment’s notice though, and it would have been easier for Emirates to put up all the passengers and staff at its home base in Dubai. It would have also had more jets there to actually make the journey successfully once the problems were sorted out at Auckland airport.
Not the longest flight in the world anymore, but this Dubai-Auckland flight probably feels like it today. With Auckland Airport closed due to flooding, Emirates decided to return to Dubai. Looking at about a 13.5 hour flight from Dubai to Dubai. pic.twitter.com/VnPqTZeB9U
— Robbie Wood (@robbiejwood) January 27, 2023
It may be a good decision for airline to comeback to Dubai but unlucky for the passengers, flew for 13 hours only to get back from where they started, was more of an Indian Ocean tour.
— Gaurav Khopkar (@akash_railcric) January 28, 2023
Not that that’s any consolation to passengers, who wasted their whole weekend in transit…