Emirates Wins Awards for IFE, Connectivity, and Premium Economy Class

At the recent 2024 Pax International Magazine Awards on 29 May, at a ceremony in Hamburg, Germany  - Emirates was crowned the winner of ‘Best Inflight Entertainment and Connectivity Middle East’ for its’ combination of leading Wi-Fi connectivity in the sky, and an extensive 6,500 channels of content on ice.

Meanwhile, the 2024 AirlineRatings.com Airline Excellence Awards were recently announced, with Emirates taking the top spot for both ‘Best-Inflight Entertainment’ and ‘Best Premium Economy.’

Award-winning connectivity onboard Emirates

Emirates has always been at the forefront of inflight Wi-Fi developments and was one of the first airlines to enable connectivity back in 1993, and the first airline to launch an inflight mobile phone service in 2007. Emirates has invested more than US$ 300 million dollars to date on connectivity. 

Emirates customers in every class of travel can enjoy free connectivity once they sign up to Emirates Skywards. Skywards members of all tiers get free internet when travelling in Business Class and First Class. Silver, Gold and Platinum members also get free internet when flying in Economy and Premium Economy Class. Blue tier members can access free app messaging in Economy and Premium Economy Class.

As 50 new Airbus A350 start to enter service this year, Emirates will offer passengers yet another opportunity to fly better, with new high-speed, inflight broadband powered by Inmarsat’s GX Aviation. The Airbus A350s will be the first Emirates aircraft to take advantage of Inmarsat’s Global Xpress (GX) satellite network, which powers the world’s first and only globally available broadband network, ensuring passengers can enjoy uninterrupted global connectivity, even on flights over the Arctic.

Award-winning entertainment onboard Emirates

Emirates ice is a world-class entertainment library of 6,500 channels, where the content is refreshed every month. Customers can curate their watchlist before their flight, by browsing and pre-selecting movies or TV shows on the Emirates app, which can then be synchronised to ice the moment they board. On ice, Emirates customers can enjoy;

• More than 2,000 Hollywood and internationally acclaimed movies including 2024 Academy Award® winning films.

• Hundreds of complete TV series and full box sets including the latest shows from leading streaming platforms and media brands such as Paramount+ launched in April, HBO Max, Discovery+, BBC, Bloomberg Originals and Shahid.

• Over 200 documentary movies and popular TV docu-series.

• More than 150 Arabic movies and TV shows including a dedicated collection of Emirati movies.

• More than 300 Bollywood and South Asian movies and TV shows in 13 languages.

• Global cinema in over 50 languages with more than 600 international movies from across Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America.

• Over 300 movies with ‘Closed Captions’ and 140 movies with ‘Audio Description’, offering accessibility to the visually impaired.

• A music library of over 3,500 albums and curated playlists.

• 5 channels of live TV, including 3 news channels and two channels with live sport coverage.

• Over 250 dedicated kids and family channels including dozens of shows for pre-school kids.

• Happiness, wellbeing and self-development content including brands such as LinkedIn Learning and Mindvalley.

• Podcasts and audiobooks including Emirates World, dedicated to highlighting the destination of Dubai and engaging with global thought leaders.

Award-winning Premium Economy Class

Emirates Premium Economy is a newly launched product that rivals Business Class on many airlines and features many new customer comforts including leather seats with a generous pitch of up to 40 inches, a 19.5 inches wide seat, and a recline of 8 inches for a comfortable cradle position with ample room to stretch out. It also offers calf rests and footrests for additional comfort, a 6-way adjustable headrest and many other thoughtful touches such as easily accessible in-seat charging points and a side cocktail table, and a 13.3” TV screen- one of the largest in its class.

Customers can get comfortable under sustainable blankets made from recycled plastic bottles, a generously sized pillow, complimentary amenity kits and enjoy being welcomed onboard with a welcome drink in fine glassware. During meal service, a selection of generous meals made with seasonal ingredients and regional influences are served on chinaware, accompanied by stainless steel cutlery wrapped in linen napkin.

Premium Economy Class is currently available on 15 routes - London Heathrow, Sydney, Melbourne, Christchurch, Auckland, Singapore, Los Angeles, New York, Houston, San Francisco, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Tokyo Narita, Sao Paulo, Dubai, and Osaka from June 11th.