RIYADH: Dubai carrier Emirates is all set to invest $350 million to equip its 50-strong fleet of A350s with inflight entertainment systems. According to a press release, the airline has selected the new Thales’ AVANT Up system for its incoming Airbus A350 aircraft for its incoming fleet which is scheduled for delivery in 2024. The press release noted that the new inflight entertainment systems will provide a memorable cinematic and personalized passenger experience. “Emirates has always regarded inflight entertainment as an essential aspect of our onboard experience, and we were in fact the first airline to put personal screens onto every single seat onboard when that was far from the norm over 30 years ago,” said Adel al Redha, Emirates’ chief operating officer. He added: “Our investment in next-generation Thales systems for our new A350 fleet will further our lead, enabling us to deliver even better experiences to our customers.” The new entertainment system from Thales is expected to provide an enhanced ‘live’ television offering that provides a broader choice of live television and news in the highest available definition, the carrier added. According to the press release, the entertainment system will provide 5,000 channels of multi-language content including live TV, movies, TV shows and music hits, along with the world’s first inflight shopping channel. “At Thales we are proud to partner with Emirates in their mission to Fly Better. Thales’ AVANT Up brings to Emirates the latest consumer technologies and capabilities to the aircraft,” said Yannick Assouad, executive vice president, Thales Avionics. Emirates is also the first airline in the world to use Thales’ Pulse, a power management technology that will make charging performance unaffected no matter how many users are charging their devices at the same time. Earlier in August, Emirates revealed that it is investing over $2 billion to boost its inflight customer experience. According to a statement issued by the airline carrier, the investment includes a program to retrofit over 120 aircraft with the latest interiors, in addition to an array of other service improvements across all cabins starting in 2022.