|
|
 |
 |
 |
| Saturday, 16 October 2004 |
 |
|
 |
Business | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
|
SriLankan Airlines wins three global inflight entertainment awards Sri Lankan Airlines won three global awards for excellence for inflight entertainment at the World Airline Entertainment Association's (WAEA) Avion Award 2004. The most prestigious prize was "Best Overall Inflight Entertainment," for an airline with a fleet size of 20 or less aircraft. It was the second year in succession that SriLankan Airlines won this title from the WAEA, the global airline entertainment industry's premier organisation, with a membership of more than 90 airlines and 250 airline suppliers and related companies that range from aircraft manufacturers to movie producers. The award of "Best Overall Inflight Entertainment" is made in three categories based on the size of an airline's fleet - 1-20 aircraft, 21-50 aircraft, and more than 50 aircraft. SriLankan also cemented its position as having some of the world's finest inflight entertainment in both short haul and long haul air travel, winning the awards of "Best Inflight Video Programming - Short Haul," and "Best Inflight Video Programming - Long Haul," over stiff competition from some of the world's largest and most prestigious airlines. Other finalists in these categories included Emirates, Air Canada, Qantas, American Airlines, Virgin, Cathay Pacific Airways and bmi British Midland. On receiving the awards: "We may be a small airline but this does not mean we do not compete with the best the big airlines have to offer. SriLankan is very proud to accept these awards in recognition of our investment in this important aspect of customer service Peter Hill, CEO of SriLankan commented. SriLankan offers over 40 channels of TV and radio entertainment and a selection of games on its fleet of A340s and A330s. This is the fourth consecutive year that SriLankan's inflight entertainment has been recognised at the Avion awards. In 2001, SriLankan was chosen second runner-up in the "Best Inflight Entertainment Guide" category, and the following year was first runner-up in the same category. The judges evaluated over 200 samples of inflight audio, video, print, and interactive content that appeared in commercial airline service during the past year, representing 44 passenger airlines worldwide. The awards presentation took place at Gala Banquet following the WAEA's 25th Annual Conference and Exhibition in Seattle, Washington, where the achievements of the winners were honoured before the inflight entertainment community and published widely in the world's media. SriLankan Airlines has gained recognition as a world-class airline, and received a string of accolades in recent years including Skytrax's "World's Friendliest Cabin Staff," first runner-up for the "World's Best Cabin Staff" also from Skytrax, the TTG (Asia) "Best Airline in South asia Award", and "Best Airline Central Asia" for the fourth consecutive year. SriLankan has also built a sterling reputation for punctuality, and Airbus Industries recently named SriLankan as the world's most efficient operator of Airbus A330s in the small fleet category in 2002 and 2003. SriLankan, together with its strategic partner Emirates, shares an award-winning frequent flyer program Skywards, which has over one million members. In 2003 Skywards, then only two-years old, swept the Freddie awards (the frequent flyer world's equivalent of the Oscars), winning six awards including Program of the Year. The airline has been rapidly expanding its fleet, route network and services, and plans to acquire more aircraft, SriLankan now flies to 42 destinations in 23 countries, and has announced plans to launch services to China. The airline is also in the midst of expanding its operations to India, and plans to launch services to at least two more cities in that country in the next few months. In addition, SriLankan also flies to 10 domestic destinations with its amphibious service SriLankan Air Taxi. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
