flydubai highlights 737-800 improvements at Arabian Travel Market
Recaro supplied the seating for flydubai's 737-800 Economy Class
The latest improvements to the onboard experience at flydubai were on display at this year’s Arabian Travel Market (ATM).
The carrier’s redesigned passenger experience enables travel in an environment that minimizes crew and passenger contact. Passengers who book a flight through flydubai.com will receive complimentary global cover for COVID-19 related costs to offer greater peace of mind when traveling.
“The onset of the pandemic in 2020 has reshaped the way people travel and the way airlines operate,” said Daniel Kerrison, Vice President Inflight Product at flydubai, in today’s announcement. “We have taken all necessary precautionary measures to safeguard our passengers and that meant doing things differently. We temporarily discontinued our onboard duty-free sales, altered the meal service to individually packed meals, disabled our touch screens and limited movement in the cabin. A year on, we have gradually and safely reintroduced some of the onboard services and continue to add new features to enhance our onboard experience.”
The airline introduced a complimentary inflight entertainment streaming service to its fleet of Next-Generation 737-800 aircraft earlier in May. The new digital streaming solution is offered by AIRTIME, the carrier’s Wi-Fi connectivity provider. Passengers traveling on one of flydubai’s 36 Next-Generation 737-800 aircraft have complimentary inflight entertainment streamed wirelessly to their personal mobile devices, laptops and tablets. This will replace the seatback entertainment system in the economy cabin.
Passengers traveling in Business Class will have access to flydubai’s Inflight Entertainment (IFE) on their dedicated HD touchscreens with audio content, games and a selection of more than 150 TV series and films from Arabic cinema, Bollywood, Hollywood, Russian cinema and many more.
“We are very pleased that Wi-Fi connectivity is now available on 40 of our fleet of 50 737 aircraft,” Kerrison added. “Whether they prefer to stay connected for the duration of their flight, or opt to disconnect and enjoy our inflight entertainment, passengers can now enjoy more options from flydubai. We continue to invest in technology and enhancing our product offering. Over the next few months, we will roll out more services including our new online eShop for passengers to pre-purchase a selection of hundreds of products VAT-free, to be delivered to their seat during the flight. We will also see the introduction of Bluetooth headphone pairing on our Boeing MAX aircraft allowing passengers to bring their own headphones and connect wirelessly to our award-winning seat-back entertainment system.”
Ten aircraft in flydubai’s fleet of 14 737 MAXs have returned to passenger service since April 8 having met all the regulatory requirements.
Passengers traveling on a 737 MAX aircraft will experience a new cabin offering with flatbed in Business Class and in addition to the extra space and privacy, passengers can sleep comfortably during their flight. Economy Class offers new RECARO seats, which are designed to optimize space and comfort so passengers can sit back, relax and enjoy their flight.
The MAX aircraft also features inflight entertainment with a full HD, 11.6-inch screen, with a wide selection of movies, TV shows, music and games in English, Arabic and Russian. Passengers have complimentary seatback inflight entertainment in Business Class or purchase inflight entertainment packages starting at AED15 (US$4) when traveling in Economy Class.
