Dubai-based airline Emirates is offering to cover passengers’
medical expenses up to €150,000, as well as quarantine costs of €100 per day
for 14 days should they be diagnosed with Covid-19 during their travel.
The service is being provided “free of cost” to all Emirates
passengers regardless of their class of travel or destination for flights booked
until 31 October 2020. The coverage is valid for 31 days from the first flight
of their journey, meaning customers can take advantage of the offer even after
they have reached their destination or if they travel onwards on services other
than Emirates flights.
To obtain coverage, passengers who test positive for
Covid-19 during their travel have to contact a dedicated hotline.
Emirates Group chairman and CEO Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al
Maktoum said: “Emirates has worked hard to put in place measures at every step
of the customer journey to mitigate risk of infection, and we have also
revamped our booking policies to offer flexibility. We are now taking it to the
next level by being the first in the industry to offer our customers free
global cover for Covid-19 medical expenses and quarantine costs should they
incur these costs during their travel. It is an investment on our part, but we
are putting our customers first and we believe they will welcome this initiative.”
The news comes after Emirates, which suspended nearly all of
its passenger flights at the beginning of the pandemic, confirmed it would have
to cut around 9,000 jobs as a result of the financial impact of coronavirus.