One Big Turbulence

 

Over the last five decades, United Arab Emirates (UAE) has developed as a major global hub and economic centre, capitalising on its location, vast reserves of Natural Gas and business-supportive policies. It has created wonderful infrastructure over the decades and has many firsts in the world of trade and commerce. Dubai and Abu Dhabi have also become major tourist destinations. This has led both investors and workers to find remunerative markets and sources of livelihood for millions respectively.

Emirates Airlines is a subsidiary of the Emirates Group, owned and controlled by the government. This airlines has acted as a powerful tool in developing Dubai as a centre in this phenomenal transformation. Emirates offers over 500 flights a day to nearly 100 destinations all over the world by owning one of the largest aircraft fleets in the world. It has made a name for itself in the airline industry due to its on-time performance, competitive fare structure, neat and clean aircrafts and facilities, and courteous service. Many aspects of its operations are good examples in a customer service training session. Those who have flown on its aircrafts would have seen and experienced this. 

In a blog post written three years ago, titled "No turbulence, please", we had seen how an Airbus A 380-800 Emirates flight from Los Angeles to Dubai did not experience even a single turbulence during its entire 16 hour flight. The seat belt sign did not come on again once the aircraft took off and reached the cruising height till the time of landing in Dubai. This was due a combination of various factors like the magnificent aircraft, weather conditions, skilled pilots and chosen path, among others. Please click here to read the post for further details.

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There was an occasion to fly on the same route on the same airline and aircraft, in the reverse direction, yesterday (8th May, 2026). The flight was from Dubai to Los Angeles. The stay in the aircraft was of over 18 hours. It was a turbulent flight, but entirely for reasons not attributable to airline or airline industry. It was indeed a case of "One Big Turbulence". (Incidentally seat belt sign came on only once during the entire flight due to technical reasons!). No need to eloberate on this. Everyone knows that the real turbulence is the ongoing conflict in the area around "Strait of Hormuz".

The conflict that has developed in the area around the "Strait of Hormuz" on the last day of February has not yet reached any solution point. Claims and counter-claims have intensified and large populations allover the world have been facing the heat. The disruption in supplies of essential energy sources and resultant inflation have been haunting the populations all over the world. It has come to even a situation where restaurants have been forced to trim their "Menu cards" and add a "Gas cost" to the bill the customer finally pays. Items like Upma and Poha have become life-savers as they can be prepared once in bulk and served the whole day (or night) as against then and there prepared and much preferred Dosa and its cousins.

Safety concerns due to the conflict have made the travellers to choose alternate routes to meet their travel requirements. Those travelling from India and neighbouring countries to east coast of continental America are choosing airline routes via Europe and those going to the west coast of continental America are choosing the routes via Singapore and Japan. Aviation fuel has become costlier and hence increased the fares offered by the airlines. Some of those who had booked travel via Dubai had to cancel and look for alternate arrangements. Airlines flying via middle-east centres had to merge flights due to such cancellations, fly smaller aircrafts in place of giants like Airbus A-380, as well as address safety fears in the minds of travelling people. These were not imaginary feals, but real and subsisting ones. 

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Just as we were packing bags for the journey, the airline informed that the itinerary was modified, and postponed by four days. Coupled with it, the first flight was changed as well, thus adding an element of extended wait of over 8 hours in Dubai in place of an earlier one and half hour gap that just met the change of aircrafts. This brought in various other challenges:

• Extending stay accommodation at the place of origin of the journey.
• Managing resultant costs and physical inconvenience.
• Managing issues arising from delayed arrival at destination like rescheduling or cancelling future appointments, further travel plans etc. 
• Handling issues like supplies, and more importantly medicines and allied requirements.
• Inconvenience of being unable to attend scheduled events and functions etc. 
• Being subjected to longer wait times at connecting flight points which can be very difficult especially to the sick, aged and small children.
• Dealing with emotional and psychological problems arising from the above issues.
• Other similar issues arising from the above reasons.

These problems can arise to any one travelling at the given point in time. What are the lessons that can be learnt from this "One Big Turbulence"?

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Some solutions for the above problems can be are as under:

• Planning and booking alternate flights through undisturbed routes, if the departure date cannot be changed. Doing this at the first sight of trouble may save a lot of money.
• Extending accommodation or finding a standby place for stay to cover the extended period.
• Planning for additional financial resources to meet the disrupted travel plans.
• Planning and getting additional supplies, especially medicines, baby foods etc.
• Cancelling or rescheduling appointments for meetings, medical checkups etc. 
• Finding solutions for extended waiting times at connecting flight points.
• Reading "Bhagavadgita" or similar epics for psychological and emotional stability. Though some may find it laughable, it can be very good risk management tool in such situations!

Extended wait times have problems and solutions for them. Only we should know about them.

• When the plan is changed by the airline, we have the option of accepting or rejecting it. This option should be exercised.
• When alternate plan is offered by the airline, if it suits us, we have to communicate acceptance appropriately. Not doing this may result in the airline cancelling the offer!
• When there is an extended wait time at connection points, airline companies offer the travellers access to special lounges or even hotel accommodation if the wait period is over 8 hours. But this is not given automatically to everyone. They are given if you ask for it. Like the louder crying child getting the first milk. We should learn to ask for it. 
• If the hotel accommodation is outside the airport in the transit country, a requirement of visa may arise. This should be checked.
• If there is a visa requirement, it should be immediately applied for. otherwise there can be long waits for "Visa on arrival" in such situations.
• Travel arrangements from the airport terminal to hotel and back, food payments etc. must be checked with the airlines. Airlines do not offer anything on their own. If you ask for accommodation you will get it. If you ask for transportation you will get it. If you ask for food voucher, you may get it. These are the rules of the game!

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We had to wait inside the aircraft in Dubai for more than an hour before take-off due to technical reasons like heavy traffic. Consequently, food service etc. were considerably delayed. Due to the conflict, aircraft had to fly over a longer path to avoid the conflict area. Thus a normal 16 hour flight became one of over 18 hours. Planning and patience are the essential  requirements to tide over such turbulent times.