At the end of last week, the Emirates Sales Commercial Manager in Uganda Ms Sarina Carrasco informed its customers that there will be cancellation of the flights with effect from 18th March 13, 2020 due to the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic.
This is a big blow to Uganda’s economy and tourism industry, Uganda imports lots of commodities from Dubai and also Dubai equivalently gets products from Uganda especially agro produces. More to that many tourists use fly emirates as a means to get to Uganda to visits its tourist sites.
The cancellation of emirates flights has not only happened to Uganda but also other destinations like Italy with a reaction to the spreading covid19.
Different governments have stopped its nationals from travelling to various destination in an attempt to stop the spread of the virus and hence emirates not having enough clients to fly. The cancellations was inevitable to cut down the expenses since the sales were getting low and low.
The statement from emirates about the cancellation read, “ Dear Industry partners, please be advised that due to operations reasons, the following flight cancellations will take place effective March 18, 2020 till April 29, 2020, Mondays and Wednesday only”.
The cancelled flights include;
EK729/730/3 18Mar20 – DXB/EBB/DXB –
EK729/730/1 23Mar20 – DXB/EBB/DXB –
EK729/730/3 25Mar20 – DXB/EBB/DXB –
EK729/730/1 30Mar20 – DXB/EBB/DXB –
EK729/730/3 01Apr20 – DXB/EBB/DXB –
EK729/730/1 06Apr20 – DXB/EBB/DXB –
EK729/730/3 08Apr20 – DXB/EBB/DXB –
EK729/730/1 13Apr20 – DXB/EBB/DXB –
EK729/730/3 15Apr20 – DXB/EBB/DXB –
EK729/730/1 20Apr20 – DXB/EBB/DXB –
EK729/730/3 22Apr20 – DXB/EBB/DXB –
EK729/730/1 27Apr20 – DXB/EBB/DXB and
EK729/730/3 29Apr20 – DXB/EBB/DXB.
Ms Sarina Carrasco, emirates sales top brass in Uganda confirmed the news of the cancellation of the flights while on a presser attended by a mammoth of journalists.
She said,” yes the information loaming is correct. This is a decision made right from our headquarters further information will be given through the media”.
Apparently Uganda has confirmed no case of coronavirus but Dubai and other countries who use the fly emirates have been greatly affected and therefore affecting Uganda indirectly.
On top of Dubai providing market for Uganda’s agro produce, it is one of the places where Uganda exports its surplus labor force.
Ms Sarina Carrasco, the Emirates sales manager commercial in Uganda confirmed the cancellation of the flights but could not provide further details.
“Yes the above information is correct. This is a decision from our headquarters, further information will be communicated through the media,” she said, referring Daily Monitor to the team handling the airline’s communications in Uganda.
Emirates also put up provisions to its clients in case they wish to change their travel plans. They also advised customers who wish to reschedule their travel dates to do it within the grace period of 11 months.
