Emirates’ in-flight comforts were lauded as it clinched awards for Best Wi-Fi and Best Food & Beverage in the Middle East at the APEX 2020 Regional Passenger Choice Awards™ held in Singapore yesterday November 13, 2019.
The Best Food & Beverage award recognized Emirates’ regionally inspired cuisine and extensive drinks menu. Each year, more than 110 million meals are served on board Emirates’ restaurant in the sky with the same attention to detail in First, Business and Economy Class.
Emirates runs a round-the-clock kitchen with 1,800 chefs based in Dubai whipping up 12,450 recipes. The airline’s chefs focus on simple, well cooked dishes that emphasise fresh ingredients of the highest quality. Emirates brings the finest products on board through long standing partnerships worldwide, and supporting local suppliers and artisans.
To complement the culinary experience onboard, Emirates pays special attention to its drinks menu boasting world class champagne, wines and spirits. The beverages on each route are carefully selected to complement the menu and include exclusives found only on Emirates. A long term buying strategy also means that the airline has 7 million bottles of wines currently stored in its cellar in France to be served by 2035.
Emirates was also awarded the airline with the Best Wi-Fi in the Middle East at APEX 2020 Regional Passenger Choice Awards™. Its entire fleet is Wi-Fi enabled and Emirates provides free Wi-Fi across all classes – a choice of 20MB complimentary data to use on any app or 2 hours of unlimited text messaging on popular messaging apps.
More than one million passengers log on to Wi-Fi each month and 40% of travellers choose the unlimited free text messaging option to keep in touch with family and friends. Emirates Skywards members enjoy special benefits depending on their membership tier and class of travel, including free unlimited Wi-Fi for all members travelling in First Class or Business Class; and for Gold and Platinum members in Economy.
Emirates has started an upgrade programme to retrofit faster Wi-Fi onto its older A380 aircraft as part of its continued investment in product to enhance the onboard experience. 55 aircraft will be fitted with faster broadband in the next 2 years.
APEX once again partnered with TripIt® from Concur®, the world’s highest-rated travel-organizing app, to gather anonymous passenger feedback based on neutral, third-party passenger feedback and insights for the 2020 APEX Passenger Choice Awards.
Using a five-star scale, more than one million flights were rated by passengers across nearly 600 airlines from around the world between 1 July 2018 and 30 June 2019. On the same screen, passengers were given the opportunity to provide anonymous ratings in five subcategories: seat comfort, cabin service, food and beverage, entertainment, and Wi-Fi. The single screen rating allows airline passengers to easily rate their flight in less than 15 seconds.