MUMBAI: Emirates Airline has won the coveted World's Best Airline In-flight Entertainment award 2005 in the latest World Airline Awards, announced recently by Skytrax Research of London.
The award was based on the annual Airline In-flight 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, 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 in-flight 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, Skytrax director marketing Peter Miller, said, "The whole concept of in-flight entertainment has changed so dramatically in the last ten years, and the relative importance of In-flight Entertainment 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."
"We congratulate Emirates on winning the 2005 Best Airline In-flight 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," he added.
Emirates vice president passenger communications and visual services Patrick Brannelly 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 in-flight entertainment but also went the extra mile to vote for us."
"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 in-flight entertainment systems equates to nearly $10 million per aircraft," he added.
Emirates continues to enhance the in-flight 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 in-flight entertainment system, called 'Ice' (Information, Communications and Entertainment) 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.
