Emirates Airlines has refunded nearly all of its customers who were forced to cancel their flights due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Dubai-based carrier confirmed on Monday that it has so far spent 5 billion UAE dirhams ($1.4 billion) on “COVID-19-related” travel compensation for affected passengers.

Airlines around the world have been swamped with requests from customers who have asked for their money back since March, when governments around the world shut down their borders, forcing carriers and tour operators to cancel bookings.

Over a million requests

Since March, Emirates said it has completed more than 1.4 million requests from passengers, representing 90 percent of the airline’s refund backlog. The requests include those received up until the end of June, except for a few cases which need to be reviewed manually.

According to Tim Clark, president of Emirates Airline, most of the cases are straightforward and that these are the ones that they are able to process quickly.

“But there are cases which will take a bit more time for our customer teams to manually review and complete. We are grateful to our customers for their patience and understanding,” he said in a statement.

Unprecedented backlog

He assured that the airline is committed to “honouring refunds” and that they are trying their “utmost to clear the massive and unprecedented backlog” that was caused by the health crisis.

The airline also noted that it continues to coordinate with other service providers in the travel industry to return the money of customers who have secured Emirates tickets through travel agents.

Since the lifting of restrictions, Emirates has reactivated flights to more than 80 cities.

The airline had earlier assured it will cover the medical and quarantine costs of travellers. The free healthcare cover applies to those who contract the virus during their trip.

(Writing by Cleofe Maceda; editing by Seban Scaria)

Cleofe.maceda@refinitiv.com

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