Emirates enhances onboard operations with Lenovo tablet PCs

This project is driven by Emirates' continuing growth and the ongoing development of the award-winning airline's services and is intended to strengthen Emirates' leadership position at both a regional and international level. The initiative is based around tools that support enhanced information flow between cabin crew and ground systems.

"Emirates is constantly and rapidly expanding its global routes, its fleet, and at the same time we are aiming to constantly innovate to improve our service delivery," said Ted Green, Vice President, Business Planning & Development (Service Delivery), Emirates. "Investing in sophisticated technology gives us the capability to develop and implement innovative applications to deliver unique services to our high valued customers. The fast growth Emirates is experiencing today means that we should always be two steps ahead and we believe that Lenovo is delivering the tools we need to stay there."

To provide more value-added service onboard its flights, Emirates is enabling connectivity between the cabin crew and the customer service centre ground systems, to exchange real-time information such as passengers' preferred drinks or meal choices, favourite type of in-flight entertainment or certain special interests. Automating the process using the Lenovo ThinkPad X41 Tablet PCs will mean speed of communication and automatic synchronization of the data.

The robustness and reliability of the Lenovo machines can withstand the wear and tear of daily usage in such a high volume and demanding application.

Taking information management into the air is a clear demonstration of the new applications that are being supported by pervasive computing: the use of rich information management and decision support systems that can, literally, give access to information anywhere. "The Emirates Airline application of the ThinkPad Tablet PC marks a significant milestone in the adoption of this platform, and a pioneering step forward by the world's fastest growing airline," said Milko von Dujil, Senior Vice President for Lenovo Group and President of Lenovo for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). "This extension of mobile computing in the enterprise sector highlights the position of the ThinkPad tablet PC as a cost-effective integrated solution with industry-leading security and connectivity features. We look forward to being part of the successful launch of this initiative, and to developing our relationship with Emirates further in the near future. "

A convertible tablet PC offers the Emirates crew the choice of working in two ways - as a tablet with digital pen, or as a traditional notebook PC. Equipped with the ThinkPad signature full-size keyboard, the ThinkPad X41 Tablet provides 170-degree viewing, an optional integrated fingerprint reader for unsurpassed security, the latest ThinkVantage Technologies for reliability and convenient wireless connectivity. The tablet also offers standard anti-reflective and anti-glare coatings to maximize indoor visibility.