Emirates Launches First A350-900 Featuring Thales’ AVANT Up Inflight Entertainment System

Thales and Emirates has officially marked the entry into service of the airline’s first Airbus A350-900 with a special flight from Dubai to Edinburgh, Scotland, on January 3, 2025. This milestone aircraft is equipped with Thales’ state-of-the-art AVANT Up inflight entertainment (IFE) system, heralding a new era in the passenger experience.

Emirates’ latest A350-900 features the next-generation version of its ‘ice’ IFE system, enhanced by a suite of groundbreaking innovations powered by Thales technologies. Designed to elevate the flying experience, the system introduces over 30 new features, with even more set to roll out in the coming months.

Passengers can enjoy an unparalleled cinematic experience with Thales’ 4K QLED HDR displays, offering the best picture quality available on any aircraft. The ultra-responsive touchscreens provide seamless navigation across ‘ice’s vast catalog of entertainment options. The system also includes two Bluetooth connections, allowing passengers to pair multiple devices, as well as built-in Wi-Fi for added connectivity.

In addition, Thales’ award-winning power management solution delivers up to 60W of in-screen charging capacity, ensuring that passengers can keep their devices powered throughout the journey and arrive fully charged.

AVANT Up provides a wide range of digital services and applications enabling Emirates to uniquely configure and continually elevate services onboard to tailor a personalized experience for every passenger. Passengers will be able to login at the seat, save preferences, and continue watching their favorites. The IFE system will also be able to curate recommendations based on watch history, share personalized connecting gate information, and much more.

Passengers traveling on the new A350 aircraft will enjoy industry-first event-based live TV with “happening now” content such as sports, news and special events. The system also features a unique Digital Video Recording capability that redefines entertainment in the sky. Beyond live TV, passengers will be able to binge on iceMoments, a new way to enjoy content in a short video format. Using Emirates’ ‘ice’ user interface, passengers can access the smart search engine, a navigation bar with play controls and settings, and a unique pictoral user interface (UI) for kids.

Together, Emirates and Thales introduce an award-winning UI for passengers with vision assistance needs. The UI supports audio-cue navigation assistance, voice metadata feedback, touch and swipe gesture controls, and a large selection of audio-descriptive content to create a more inclusive and accessible travel experience for all.

“Thales is honoured to celebrate alongside Emirates the airline’s first A350 taking flight. We are excited for Emirates passengers to experience the next-generation of in-flight entertainment on ice powered by AVANT Up,” said Niels Steenstrup, Chief Executive Officer, Thales InFlyt Experience. “We are proud to partner with Emirates in their mission to fly better. Together, we accelerate the future of IFE to constantly elevate the benchmark of inflight experience.”

Last Updated on January 6, 2025 by Staff Writer