DUBAI, 10 January 2004 — Emirates Airlines has announced that soon it will offer its passengers the world’s first regular, airborne wireless laptop service, thanks to an agreement signed in Dubai on Wednesday with Tenzing Communications of Seattle, Washington. The Dubai-based international airline will launch the new feature in the first quarter of this year onboard all of its new Airbus A340-500s. Emirates I is the launch carrier for this new aircraft which started operating on Dec. 1 on the first-ever nonstop service between Dubai and Sydney. “The new Emirates product is the world’s first deployment of Wi-Fi e-mail laptop connectivity in regularly scheduled commercial aviation. It will be offered alongside the seatback e-mail and SMSM already available on Emirates’ A340-500s, which allow passengers send and receive e-mails and SMS during the flight, using an onscreen keyboard,” Emirates Vice Chairman and Group President Maurice Flanagan said. With the new wireless laptop system, passengers can use their own e-mail accounts, including corporate e-mail, in a secure environment. The ultra-long-range A340-500 will be the first aircraft to include a wireless LAN certified for passengers’ own Wi-Fi-enabled laptop computers. Dial-up connections to the onboard server also will be available from passenger seats. “The seatback e-mail and SMS products we already provide are very popular with passengers who are not carrying a laptop. The Tenzing service is targeted at those who like to keep in touch with their regular e-mail accounts on Wi-Fi,” he added.
