DUBAI (Reuters) -Emirates Airline on Wednesday suspended check-in for passengers departing until midnight after record rains caused significant damage across the United Arab Emirates.
The Dubai-based carrier said passengers arriving to Dubai and already in transit would continue to be processed but warned that delays to departures and arrivals should be expected.
Dubai International, the hub for Emirates Airline, separately said that it was experiencing significant disruptions with flights delayed or diverted due to the heavy rains.
The airport, which is the world’s busiest for international flights and a major transit hub, in a post on social media advised passengers in Dubai not to come to the airport.
“We are working hard to recover operations as quickly as possible in very challenging conditions,” it wrote on X.
The airport briefly suspended operations on Tuesday as the rains caused flooding across Dubai and elsewhere in the UAE.
Local media reported that an elderly Emirati man in his 70s died on Tuesday morning when his vehicle was caught in flash floods in the Ras Al Khaimah emirate, in the country’s north.
The UAE recorded up until Tuesday 9 p.m. (1700 GMT) the largest amount of rainfall over a 24 hour period since records began in 1949, according to the National Centre of Meteorology.
The centre said 254 mm of rain was recorded in less than 24 hours in Al Ain, part of the Abu Dhabi emirate that borders Oman.
The UAE, a federation of emirates, was established in 1971.
Local media and social media posts showed damage in parts of the country, including collapsed roads. Federal and local governments ordered employees and schools to work remotely on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Residents posted on social media on Tuesday that they had been stuck in hours-long traffic due to flooded roads. The rains had eased by late Tuesday and there were clear skies on Wednesday as authorities surveyed the damage.
(Reporting by Clauda Tanios and Alexander Cornwell; Editing by Himani Sarkar, Tom Hogue and Shri Navaratnam)
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