Emirates inflight entertainment voted best in the world
Economy Class passengers on Emirates’ Boeing 777 enjoy the
state-of-the-art inflight entertainment system
|
Emirates Airline has won the coveted World's Best Airline Inflight
Entertainment 2005 in the latest World Airline Awards, announced
recently by Skytrax Research of London.
The award was based on the annual Airline Inflight Entertainment (IFE)
Survey conducted by Skytrax between June 2004 and May 2005 that included
more than one million survey responses from over 85 different
nationalities.
The IFE poll was part of the world's largest airline passenger
survey, executed by Skytrax, which received a grand total of more than
12 million responses. Emirates was also declared first in the 'Best
Airlines - Middle East' and 'Best Regional Airline - Middle East and
Africa' categories. It stood second in 'Best Economy Class
(intercontinental)' and received the 'Airline of the Year Bronze Award'.
The IFE survey measured each airline's inflight entertainment on
different aspects of passenger satisfaction - overall quality; selection
of movies including choice of languages; video and audio programmes,
games and other interactive options; and the quality of headsets.
Commenting on the results, Peter Miller, Skytrax Director of
Marketing said: "The whole concept of inflight entertainment has changed
so dramatically in the last ten years, and the relative importance of
Inflight Entertainment (IFE) to passengers continues to grow. Choice is
paramount, and in the past couple of years it has become more focussed
on giving the customer control."
He added: "We congratulate Emirates on winning the 2005 Best Airline
Inflight Entertainment Award, particularly in the heat of stiff
competition from several other major airlines. This sector of an
airline's product is now reflective of a dedication to providing
customers the very best quality travel experience, and Emirates
continues to set new benchmarks for the industry to match."
Patrick Brannelly, Emirates' Vice President: Passenger Communications
& Visual Services said: "We are extremely gratified by this award as it
is an affirmation of what we have always strived for - to offer the best
IFE in the business.
We would like to thank Skytrax and our passengers, who not only
enjoyed our inflight entertainment but also went the extra mile to vote
for us."
He added: "Ever since Emirates was the first airline in the world to
offer a personal TV in all three classes - way back in 1992, it has been
committed to offering the very best movies, TV and audio programmes and
games. Today, Emirates typical investment in inflight entertainment
systems equates to nearly US$10 million per aircraft."
Emirates continues to enhance the inflight entertainment offering, as
it does in every aspect of its operations. In December 2003, Emirates
was the first airline in the world to broadcast live BBC news headlines
to its fleet of aircraft - with regular updates transmitted during the
flight. Wi-Fi connectivity on the Airbus A340-500 was launched in May
2004, allowing passengers with Wi-Fi equipped laptops to check their
email during the flight.
The latest inflight entertainment system, called ICE for information,
entertainment and communications, features over 500 channels of
entertainment all controllable by the passenger on-demand. Having met
with very positive passenger reaction, ICE is already installed on over
20 per cent of the fleet, and will be extended to all future aircraft. |