Emirates, Thales ink deal for Boeing 777X
dubai — Emirates on Tuesday said it signed an agreement with Thales to equip its Boeing 777X fleet with Thales Avant inflight entertainment system.
The world’s largest international airline said it will work in partnership with Thales to develop and enhance the state-of-the-art inflight entertainment and connectivity (IFEC) system to be fitted on its new Boeing 777X aircraft due for delivery starting in mid-2020. It has 150 Boeing 777X aircraft on order.
“The new Boeing 777X aircraft will herald a new era for the Emirates fleet, and we want to ensure that our product offering on these fuel-efficient planes will be a benchmark for the industry, including the inflight entertainment experience. We look forward to revealing more details when the time is right,” said Adel Al Redha, executive vice-president and chief operations officer, Emirates airline.
On the opening day of Apex 2016 in Singapore, Thales said it will be the first to equip its inflight entertainment systems on the B777X platform. Thales will also be setting up a repair centre to provide operational support and services to Emirates. “Thales is proud to be selected by Emirates to provide the award-winning Avant inflight entertainment solution for their future B777X fleet,” said Dominique Giannoni, CEO, Thales InFlyt Experience.
Emirates has an unbeaten 12year record as the winner of World’s Best Inflight Entertainment award at the Skytrax World Airline Awards. The airline offers up to 2,500 channels on demand including the latest blockbuster movies, award-winning television box sets, comedy series, live TV, music and computer games. Currently, 85 per cent of Emirates’ fleet of 240 passenger aircraft is equipped with Wi-Fi on board including all A380 aircraft and 107 aircraft are equipped with live TV, which has up to nine channels of live news and sport.
— business@khaleejtimes.com