|
After one year of service, Emirates is continuing to
add AeroMobile’s in-flight mobile service to its aircraft.
The first authorised call on an
Emirates commercial flight took
place on flight EK751, flying from Dubai to Casablanca on March 20th,
2008.
Since then, more than 160,000 passengers from over 130
countries have switched on their mobile phones on an Emirates flight to
take advantage of the ability to make and receive calls and text
messages – more than 50,000 in the last three months alone as the
service becomes more widely available and increasingly popular.
The AeroMobile system, which allows passengers to safely make and
receive calls during flights, has now been fitted on a total of 32
Emirates aircraft, making it available on one-in-four of Emirates’
services. Emirates Engineering are installing the AeroMobile system on
the rest of the fleet, with one aircraft being equipped every ten days
or so.
Patrick Brannelly, Emirates’ Vice President, Passenger
Communications and Visual Services, said, “Typically about a third of our passengers are
switching on their phones onboard AeroMobile-equipped aircraft, so it’s
clearly a popular service. We do see many though, that switch on a phone
but don’t necessarily use it, showing that they like the idea of being
contactable. It’s clear that passengers prefer using their own phones
which they are familiar with, rather than the seatback phone.
“We very rarely see multiple calls
at the same time, and most calls are shorter than a couple of minutes.
Texting using sms has been very popular. The feedback from our customers
has been full of enthusiasm.”
The AeroMobile service is being
rolled out across the Emirates ' fleet and is currently operating on
five aircraft types, the Boeing 777-200s and 777-300s, plus the Airbus
A340-300, A340-500 and A330-200. It is due to be installed on the Boeing
777-300ER from May.
See
other recent news regarding:
Airlines,
Aviation,
Flights,
First Class,
Business Class,
Hotels,
Promotions,
New Hotels,
Visitor Arrivals,
Cruises,
Free Deals,
Mobile,
AeroMobile,
Inflight,
Emirates
|
