Valcano Ash Cloud

15Apr, my replacement, morning shift, 5:00a.m. as peaceful as usual,we were asked to prepare 1000 rooms for economy class pax. I felt strange but manager said, ‘i am not joking’. 5mins later, news came, valcano in Iceland erupted, affecting the weather in UK due to the ash clouds. Another 5mins, all the flights to U.K destination cancelled in the system. 2hours later, we received more than 1000 pax in arrival, waiting for the rooms. Diverstion started immediately and everybody was requested to stay back till 22:00 at night.

16Apr, my morning shift, in Le Meridian, Business and First class transit hotel. 4a.m. reported on duty, took hand over, which is like a mess. Whole day, non stop, answering the phone, from transfer desk, arrival and other hotels, meanwhile receiving pax and answering their ‘same’ questions. Pax was a little bit anxious comparing to the first day, cause everybody watched news, read the papers, surfed the internet. Situation was not going better, flights to German and France destinations also effected. People were worried about their flights, their stay in Dubai and their expenses. We need to take care those who already stuck in Dubai from 15Apr, those who just arrived in Dubai. Oustations were informed stop boarding pax to those effected destinations. With in a short time, we collected the information ( destinations, rooms numbers and tkt numbers ) from all the hotels which we used ( more than 100 ),  Again, stayed till 23:00.

17Apr, my night shift, in Le Meridian. Every 15mins, updated email sent to inform the flight situation. The number of the pax who stuck in Dubai increased to 5000 or more. Everybody worked under stress, long working time, no eating, no toilet, no drinking.

The following day, same, following day, following day, nobody knows when it will stop.

21Apr my last night before my vacation. Surprisingly all the flights operating, suddenly, all the rush gone. Back to my normal daily work. It seems like a dream or a joke from the God. A little hill, a small movement of a little hill, made us a big loss, hustle and bustle. Now we appreciate our normal peaceful life.

p.s. Even in such chaos, we did our best to arrange a small wedding party for a newly engaged couple. They supposed to go back to U.K. for their planned wedding, somehow stuck in Dubai with nobody’s fault. All the dress and decoration were borrowed from other passengers, red capet was prepared and photos were taken, through webcam, they managed to have a on-time wedding with Emirates.

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