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Emirates' passengers
are now able to conveniently check and send emails from their personal laptops, even while flying at 40,000 feet, connecting to their corporate
counterparts and keeping in touch with home from the luxury of the airline's
Airbus A340-500.
The new service, available since 1st July, enables passengers with Wi-Fi enabled
laptops to access their regular email accounts via an onboard wireless hot spot
throughout the duration of a flight. Emirates was the first airline to take delivery of
an aircraft with Wi-Fi pre-installed, when the first A345 was introduced into its fleet
last December.
Mike Simon, Emirates' Senior Vice President Corporate Communications said:
"The usage of our existing seatback email services onboard confirms that our
passengers rely heavily on online communications to conduct their business and
social interaction worldwide. Time, for many of our passengers, definitely is
money.
"Understanding this need, Emirates has invested in the latest technology, making
it possible for our customers to make the most of their time aloft by staying
connected during the flight. Wi-Fi is fast catching on as the connection of choice
on the ground and we felt that no effort or expense must be spared to provide our
passengers with the latest technology to stay connected in the air as well."
During the first three months of service, July-September, Emirates are offering the
Wi-Fi email service at a 50 percent discount to encourage passengers to try the
service. With the standard service (US$20 per flight) passengers can send and
receive an unlimited number of emails up to four kilobytes (approximately three
text pages) in size and can upload or download longer messages or attachments
for an additional 60 cents per kilobyte. The
Check Mail service (US$10 per flight) allows passengers to look at their email inboxes and monitor new or important messages. Passenger can choose to upload or download particular messages and attachments for an additional 60 cents per kilobyte.
The new service will be offered alongside the seatback e-mail and SMS already
available on Emirates' A340-500s which let passengers send out e-mails and
SMSs during the flight, using an on-screen keyboard, and receive replies.
Emirates sourced the software to
power the service and networking connectivity from Tenzing Communications
Inc. The back office customer support services will be provided by ARINC's ISP,
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