Emirates expands its mobile footprint, launches Android app

With more than one hundred thousand monthly users of its iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch apps, Emirates is ramping up its efforts to enhance its passengers' travel experience through mobile technologies.

Developed in-house, the Emirates app for Android is a true personal journey planner, enabling users to:

1. Book flights and review travel itineraries
   
2. Manage every aspect of a booking, from seat selection to on-board menu and what's on ice
   
3. Download their boarding pass directly to Google Now or send it to a phone via SMS or email
   
4. Receive quick updates on flight boarding and gate changes
   
5. Get notifications about our chauffeur-drive service
   
6. Verify the status of a flight and sign up for alerts to know when it has departed or arrived
   
7. Manage all the details of their Skywards account such as favourite destinations, aisle or window seats, and preferred newspaper.
   

"Our passengers are mobile and increasingly reliant on mobile devices to stay connected, no matter where they are in the world," said Alex Knigge, Emirates' senior vice president - digital. "We believe the right mobile technology can significantly improve our customers' experience. As a result, Emirates' mobile strategy is aggressive and a key element of our digital roadmap. We aim to be trailblazers in the airline industry when it comes to mobile technologies."

During the development of the Android app, Emirates conducted testing with employees and Skywards members. Feedback from these users was instrumental in fine tuning the overall experience.

"With the popularity of Emirates' first app for iPhone, many customers have asked for the Emirates App for Android. In fact, half of all users who access our website via mobile devices are on the Android platform," commented Knigge. "Not only does this meet the needs of many of our customers while they're on the move, it also paves the way for innovation on other devices that use the Android platform."

Emirates continues to enhance its existing apps and develop new technologies that will benefit customers using a variety of mobile devices. For customers on-the-go who do not have iPhones, iPads or Android devices, Emirates also offers mobile.emirates.com as a mobile solution.

Customers can download the free app from the Android Market.