Airlines rally to help stranded passengers

Airlines across the Middle East and North Africa have put crisis management plans into place to deal with hundreds of flight cancellations as much of European airspace closed due to the Icelandic volcanic eruption

In a statement EgyptAir said it is using larger types of aircrafts to fly to the open airports in order to meet the increasing demand on these destinations.

Captain Alaa Ashour, Chairman and CEO said "We are working hard to fly the customers to alternative European cities in which the airports are still operating normally. Further, the teams all over the EgyptAir network are contacting customers flying on European flights to brief them on the situation in order to minimise the congestion at Cairo airport.”

EgyptAir Call Center is now operating around the clock to answer the customers’ inquires. Customers in Egypt can call 1717 from any mobile or 090070000 from any land line. Passengers in Europe can revise their flights’ status through visiting EgyptAir website www.egyptair.com which is updated every five minutes.

Meanwhile Etihad has issues a statement encouraging passengers to contact their local Etihad office or the airline’s dedicated customer assistance lines. Etihad Airways’ guests who are booked to travel on a cancelled flight during the affected period can rebook to a new travel date, subject to conditions, or cancel their ticket and receive a full refund.

Etihad encourages passengers to contact their local Etihad office or the airline’s dedicated customer assistance lines. Those booked to travel on a cancelled flight during the affected period can rebook to a new travel date or cancel their ticket and receive a full refund, subject to terms and conditions

Etihad Customers can contact the airline on the following dedicated customer assistance lines:
· in the UAE - 800 550 55 (toll free);
· in the UK - 0800 917 7521 (toll free); and
· customers in other overseas locations can contact their local office or +971 25 990 900 .