Emirates’ flight from the Indian city of Chennai to Dubai was delayed on Wednesday evening due to a technical fault, the airline said. The carrier was delayed by over two hours and landed at Dubai International Airport past midnight.
“Emirates flight EK547 from Chennai to Dubai on September 24, 2024, was delayed due to a technical fault. Following an engineering inspection, the aircraft was cleared to proceed to Dubai,” the airline’s spokesperson said in a statement to Khaleej Times.
“Emirates apologises for the inconvenience caused. The safety of our passengers and crew is of the utmost importance,” said the statement.
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According to Indian media and videos posted online, smoke emanated from the back of the flight with 280 passengers, leading to a flutter at the airport on Tuesday night.
The UAE-India air corridor is one of the busiest in the region. Airlines enjoy a very high passenger load factor, with most reporting over 80-90 percent load factor. This is mainly due to a large number of Indian nationals living and working in the UAE, making up over 35 percent of the Gulf Arab country’s population.
In addition, Dubai also attracts a large number of tourists from India every year.
Airlines in the UAE and India have been requesting an increase in the number of flights to accommodate the growing traffic between the two countries.