Through Jan. 1, 2015, Emirates is donating proceeds from the sale of inflight Wi‑Fi to the Emirates Airline Foundation, a charity dedicated to supporting disadvantaged children worldwide.
Emirates offers complimentary Wi‑Fi on most of its aircraft. However, on certain A380s and a small number of other aircraft, a nominal $1 fee applies either for data downloads that exceed 10MB or because of existing hardware and software constraints.
“Emirates sees inflight Wi‑Fi as an essential value‑add service that should be freely available for our customers to connect with friends, family and business,” said Patrick Brannelly, vice president for corporate communications — product, publishing, digital and events at Emirates. “At the moment, software and technical limitations mean that on some of our aircraft we still have to levy a token charge for Wi‑Fi. We are working hard to overcome this but until then, it is only $1 to get online.”
Brannelly added that the airline began offering free and $1 Wi‑Fi across the fleet in early October, and up to 35 percent of passengers have used the service, particularly on longer flights. Emirates expects to raise and donate approximately $40,000 to the Emirates Airline Foundation through this initiative.