Not content with setting the IFE pace with the technical quality of its Panasonic-based ICE (Information, Communications, Entertainment) offering, Emirates is now pushing the content boundaries.
With cinema audiences still queuing to see Slumdog Millionaire and propelling the box office to more than $200 million worldwide, the multi-Ocar-winner is already available aboard Emirates flights. It is joined in the total of 222 films on the ICE menu this month by the Oscar-nominated Changeling and Australia, as well as the latest James Bond, Quantum of Solace, and comic animation Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa.
“Giving passengers the chance to see the winner of this year’s best-picture Oscar is an example of our commitment to quality and choice for our passengers,” says Patrick Brannelly, Emirates’ VP for passenger communications and visual services. “ICE is now available in 80 per cent of our seats and we continue to invest in the latest content while striving to stay ahead of the competition when it comes to technology and innovation.”
Along with its 200+ films, ICE offers several genres of music, up to a hundred games and 450 television shows. It also provides access to Inmarsat satellite-supported in-seat phone, email and text messaging.
On a growing proportion of the Emirates fleet – 32 aircraft are equipped so far – the in-seat communications are supplemented by the AeroMobile service, which allows passengers to use their own mobile phones in flight. The airline says that in the equipped aircraft an average of 32 per cent of passengers log on to the service, which is now available on about one Emirates flight in four.
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This week on the Shephard Defence Podcast, senior naval reporter Harry Lye and military training & simulation reporter Norbert Neumann chat with Professor John Louth.
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