Emirates is the first airline in the world to commercially launch an inflight mobile telephone service allowing passengers to stay connected while travelling.
The first authorised mobile phone call was made last Thursday at 30,000ft enroute to Casablanca, onboard an Emirates Airbus A340-300, the first in the airline’s fleet to be equipped with the AeroMobile system.
The airline will be investing US$27 mln to fit its fleet with the AeroMobile system which ensures that passenger mobile phones operate at their absolute minimum power, thereby allowing their safe use on the aircraft. A second Emirates aircraft, a Boeing 777-300, has already been installed with the AeroMobile system and will be in operation very shortly.
“All seats across our fleet are already equipped with in-seat phones, as well as email and text messaging capabilities via the in-seat entertainment system,†said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline and Group.
“We are delighted to now offer them the choice of using their own mobile phones to contact friends, family or colleagues while flying with us. Our customers are already making more than 7,000 calls a month from our in-seat phones, so we will be making life easier for them.â€
The service will only be activated when the aircraft is at cruising altitude and the cabin crew will have full control over the system, including the ability to prevent voice calls at certain times such as during night flights. The number of calls that may be made at any one time is also limited to a maximum of five or six calls, the same number as for the current in-seat phones used regularly by Emirates’ passengers. Cabin staff and information videos will advise and encourage passengers to switch their phones to silent or vibrate mode when used in the aircraft.
The service will also allow passengers to send and receive text messages, with charges in line with premium international roaming rates. Users will be billed on their regular phone bills by their own service providers as with any other roaming call.
“The ability to communicate efficiently, easily and safely when on board flights will become an every-day feature of business and leisure travel very quickly,†said AeroMobile chief executive Bjorn-Taale Sandberg.
Emirates and AeroMobile will be working to add further features to the benefit of Emirates’ passengers. These include the ability for BlackBerry-type email and other GPRS data applications later in 2008 and also to integrate AeroMobile with Emirates’ ICE inflight entertainment system.
