Dubai’s Emirates expands free inflight wifi services

Dubai airline Emirates has expanded its free inflight wifi services, it announced on Thursday.

Effective immediately, all Emirates Skywards Platinum and Gold members will be given free unlimited wifi during their flight, regardless of their class of travel.

All Emirates Skywards members travelling in first and business class will also have free unlimited wifi.

Meanwhile economy class customers and non-Skywards members will be offered 20MB of free data usage within the first two hours of log in, up from the current 10MB free allowance being offered.

Additional data can be purchased in 150MB or 500MB blocks, with discounts for Skywards Silver and Blue members.

For all non-Skywards customers in first, business and economy classes, 150MB of data will be priced at $9.99 and 500MB will cost $15.99.

Skywards Blue members in economy will need to pay $6.99 for 150MB of data and $10.99 for 500MB.

For Skywards Silver members travelling in economy, 150MB of data will cost $4.99, and 500MB will cost $7.99.

“Emirates has made significant investments in our inflight connectivity,” said Adel Al Redha, Emirates vice president and COO.

“Today, wifi services are available on over 200 of our aircraft, and it is a service that Emirates continues to subsidise heavily. Inflight wifi usage, already popular from the start, has grown tremendously.

“Our new inflight wifi plans reflect Emirates’ commitment to continue providing this as a free service for as many customers as possible, especially to our most frequent flyers,” he added.

Emirates new service comes after the airline was exempted this week from a ban on carrying larger electronic devices onboard cabins on flights to the US.

Read more: Emirates says laptop ban on US flights lifted

The ban, imposed by the US in March, led the airline to offer Microsoft tablets to first and business class passengers on flights bound for the US.