Home ›› 13 Apr 2022 ›› Corporate
Emirates has marked its 30 years of installation of TV screen in 1992 in all seats across all cabin classes throughout its fleet.
It was such a groundbreaking move that shaped traveller expectations and the inflight entertainment industry in the decades to come.
Emirates’ Senior Vice President Retail, IFE and Connectivity Patrick Brannelly said ,“When Emirates introduced personal screens on every seat back in 1992, it was considered a massive industry innovation. Other airlines questioned the sense of this huge investment, estimated at about US$15,000 per seat at that time.”
Since the introduction of satellite phones in 1993 Emirates became the first to install systems that enabled mobile phones to be used on aircraft. Today every Emirates aircraft has connectivity.
Emirates’ ice inflight entertainment system, originally launched in 2003 with 500 channels, today offers every passenger over 5,000 channels of on-demand movies, music, TV shows, box sets and documentaries, in over 40 languages.
In addition to entertainment, Emirates ice offers a range of other practical features, such as: the ability to check the status of your flight while en route; a real-time view of the sky during take-off and landing from cameras that are fixed on the aircraft’s nose, tail and underbelly; a helpful travel guide about Emirates’ hub Dubai; Emirates RED; the world’s first inflight TV shopping channel; and a range of personal development content including LinkedIn Learning.
Emirates’ IFE received numerous industry awards including ‘Best Inflight Entertainment’ at the 2022 APEX Passenger Choice Awards®, and ‘Skytrax World’s Best Inflight Entertainment’ every year since 2005.
