]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.
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