Emirates Offers In-flight Iftar Service This Ramadan

With the start of the holy month of Ramadan, Emirates has undertaken several initiatives to ensure the comfort and care of fasting customers.

The award winning Emirates in-flight service has developed a special offering for passengers observing Ramadan, in keeping with traditions and values of this important religious occasion.

For flights departing close to Iftar, Emirates will provide small snack boxes at the boarding gates of Emirates Terminal 3. The snack boxes, containing vegetable calzone, Namoura dessert, dates, water and a laban drink, will serve as a quick snack so that passengers can break their fast immediately.

Passengers who are in-flight when the sun sets will be informed of the Iftar time by the captain. Iftar will be determined based on where the aircraft is located at the time the sun goes down.

Large Iftar meal boxes will be served to fasting passengers in-flight and will comprise an array of traditional Arabic dishes including Hummus with crudités, mini Arabic bread, traditional chicken shawarma, pistachio Baklava, dates, banana, laban drink, calzone, dried apricots and prunes, and roasted almonds. The meal box, designed by Emirates’ chefs, will be served in Economy class, with a similar selection of foods served to fasting passengers in both Business and First Class.

Robin Padgett, Emirates’ Vice President Aircraft Catering said: “While we take pride in our cultural diversity, Emirates’ foundation is rooted in Islamic culture, and we are committed to ensuring that our Muslim passengers are well looked after during the holy month of Ramadan.

“Ramadan is an important part of the Islamic calendar and Emirates is pleased to be able to support our Muslim passengers as they undertake their religious obligations. Our non-fasting passengers will continue to enjoy the world-class meals Emirates is globally known for.”

Non-fasting passengers travelling on Umrah and Jeddah flights will receive a cold meal instead of the regular hot meal for all flights taking off after sunrise and before sunset, in respect to the many Muslim passengers completing Umrah on these flights.

Emirates would like to wish all our Muslim passengers Ramadan Kareem.
 

flydubai To Be Launch Customer Of Revolutionary New In-Flight Entertainment System From Lumexis

flydubai, Dubai’s first low cost airline, has signed a deal that will make the new airline the much anticipated launch customer of the revolutionary ‘Fiber To The Screen’(FTTS™) In-Flight Entertainment system from Lumexis.

The deal, announced at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg today, is for 44 flydubai B737-800NGs, the first of which is due to arrive in October 2010.

flydubai CEO, Ghaith Al Ghaith, explained why the low cost carrier had taken the step of investing in the new IFE system from Lumexis: “In-flight entertainment is very popular with passengers, but the traditional systems were prohibitively expensive for us as a low cost carrier. The Lumexis FTTS touch screen system offers us a flexible, high quality and innovative IFE option at a fraction of the normal cost.

“The FTTS system from Lumexis is revolutionary because it uses fibre optics rather than traditional copper piping. This significantly reduces the cost of the system overall, and makes it far lighter than other IFEs in use today. Any reduction in weight reduces our fuel costs and therefore ensures we can keep our ticket prices low.

“The Lumexis FTTS IFE is incredibly flexible and we are working closely with Lumexis to develop the system to reflect the flydubai model. flydubai is all about reducing complexity and offering our passengers choice. Our IFE will be available as an optional extra in the way that baggage and meals are. Passengers, travelling on flydubai aircraft fitted with the FTTS system, will have the ability to choose different parts of the system depending on their preference and how much they want to spend, and as flydubai likes to do things differently, we plan to offer functionality on our IFE system that other airlines traditionally don’t have.”

Doug Cline, CEO of Lumexis, said: “Lumexis is privileged to be partnered with such a forward thinking and innovative carrier. As the launch customer for our second generation of FTTS, flydubai demanded not only extremely low cost-of-ownership, but most importantly, the highest reliability and performance to ensure uninterrupted service and full passenger satisfaction.”

Since November 2009 when Lumexis announced they had contracted with an unnamed Boeing 737 operator as the launch customer, the identity of the airline has been the object of intense industry speculation. Few observers had expected the answer to be a low cost carrier. But as Cline explained, “While it provides unmatched delivery capacity, the unique FTTS fiber optic network is so efficient that the installed system is half the cost and weight of earlier generation, copper-based systems. As a result, the latest passenger-pleasing, revenue-producing services can be offered on board the most cost-competitive airline.”