Press Release: Emirates hits 1 million SITAONAIR-enabled wifi sessions

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The world’s largest international carrier, Emirates, has surpassed a staggering one million Wi-Fi sessions in March, powered by SITAONAIR’s connected aircraft expertise.

It represents a major moment for inflight connectivity (IFC), highlighting passengers’ demand for services that enable them to seamlessly maintain their digital lives, by streaming, chatting, enjoying social media, shopping and surfing, as they fly.

Passengers travelling with Emirates consumed 1,037,016 SITAONAIR Internet ONAIR sessions between 1 and 31 March 2018, across its B777-300ER and A380 aircraft fleet.

In partnership with SITAONAIR, Emirates offers onboard Wi-Fi and mobile connectivity to passengers across its six-continent network and on 98% of its fleet.

This is testament to inflight connectivity’s increasingly integral role in the modern passenger experience, meeting customers’ digital desires for seamless inflight connectivity, comparable with the at-home experience.

The reaching of this milestone follows last year’s extension of the SITAONAIR-Emirates partnership, and the rollout of personalized inflight connectivity for members of the airline’s award-winning loyalty program, Emirates Skywards, through SITAONAIR’s onboard Wi-Fi portal, Internet ONAIR.

A major contributor to the achievement has been SITAONAIR’s open cabin approach, which has enabled Emirates to roll out seamless Wi-Fi globally.

The airline’s passengers enjoy a consistent IFC user experience, regardless of the various satellite connections or pre-existing onboard technologies, and unconstrained by hardware suppliers’ refresh cycles.

David Lavorel, CEO, SITAONAIR, said: “We are delighted to share this major inflight connectivity milestone with Emirates. With 43% of global airlines perceiving an enhanced passenger experience as by far the connected aircraft’s biggest benefit, SITAONAIR and our long-standing customer is rising to the challenge of meeting passengers’ desire to stay connected.

“As the industry champions of an ‘open platforms’ approach, we believe all airlines can be empowered to achieve their inflight connectivity ambitions, whatever their fleet or pre-existing avionics. This moment illustrates the success of this strategy, and SITAONAIR’s ability to support airlines of all sizes to achieve integrated nose-to-tail connectivity, no matter their technological starting point. This milestone, achieved across the diverse Emirates fleet, validates our approach.”

For more information and to discover the full SITAONAIR connected aircraft portfolio, visit www.sitaonair.aero.

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About SITAONAIR

SITAONAIR is the air travel industry’s trusted connected aircraft service expert, powering innovation with recognized expertise and future-proof solutions. With our unrivalled industry-backed heritage, SITAONAIR delivers the promises of the connected aircraft, empowering 400+ airlines, 60+ ANSPs and 16,000+ aircraft to navigate the complexity of connectivity with our best-in-class solutions and services for passengers, cockpit and cabin crew, flight operations, aircraft big data and air traffic management. We believe that embracing a digital shift will reinvent the operation of aircraft, flight and on-board experience – making it safer, more efficient and enjoyable.

SITAONAIR is a subsidiary of The SITA Group, the communications and IT solution provider that transforms air travel through technology for airlines, at airports and on aircraft.