Dubai-based low-cost airline, flydubai, has launched enhanced in-flight entertainment (IFE) system, offering more movies, TV programmes and audio than any other carrier in its class.

Since its launch in November 2010, the ‘Fiber-To-The-Screen’ (‘FTTS’) system from Lumexis has broken ground in IFE because of its fibre-optic technology enabling movies to be shown in HD.

Passengers will be able to choose from 149 Hollywood, Bollywood and Arabic films – an 830 per cent increase from the 16 movies offered when the IFE was first installed.

Included in this are new releases including The Descendants and Real Steel, and the top 10 highest grossing movies of all time.

There will be 154 TV shows – up from 32 in 2010 plus 250 music albums, providing more than 500 hours of non-stop entertainment.

Ghaith Al Ghaith, CEO of flydubai, said: “We are always looking for ways to enhance the flight experience and offer our passengers more choice of optional extras. The increased content also means that even our frequent flyers will be able to watch something new every time they travel.”

In another first for low cost carriers, news from English-language website Emirates 24/7 and the Arabic daily newspaper Al Bayan have been added to the system.

The different sections include sport, features and business in addition to local and global news. The news is updated every time the aircraft land in Dubai, keeping the passengers up-to-date.

There is also a basic package, a new payment model offering TV and movie packages from Dh10 ($2.71) rather than the former pay-per-show format, giving the passengers even better value for money.

Alternatively, passengers can choose the premium package for Dh30 ($8.14), which includes everything in the basic package with the addition of movies. Daily newspapers, flydubai news, the route map and information, will continue to be free of charge on all flights.

“No matter which package passengers choose, I am sure they will be as impressed as we are with the choice on offer. We now have more than two thirds of the fleet fitted with this system and with more aircraft on order, more passengers will be able to take advantage of this unique product,” Al Ghaith concluded. – TradeArabia News Service