Emirates has received global recognition yesterday at the APEX/IFSA Global EXPO in Long Beach, California, winning 2 notable awards – the 2026 APEX Best™ Global Entertainment Award for its inflight entertainment system – ice, and a 2026 APEX WORLD CLASS™ award for all aspects of the airline’s customer experience and brand.
Emirates’ ice wins the 2026 APEX Best™ Global Entertainment Award
From a selection of more than 600 airlines globally, Emirates scooped the 2026 APEX Best Global Entertainment award from one million verified passenger votes. Emirates ice has long been celebrated as the world’s largest media library in the sky, providing customers with more than 6,500 channels of diverse entertainment and information. Within its huge library, customers can choose from up to 2,000 movies, 650 TV shows, and 4,000 hours of music, podcasts, and audiobooks across 40 languages. Ice partners with all the best providers including HBO Max, Disney+, Paramount+, Food Network, CBeebies, Discovery+, BBC, Bloomberg Originals, Shahid, BBC Earth, Animal Planet, HGTV, Nickelodeon and Spotify to provide trending and current content. Ice also offers 5 channels of live TV covering sports fixtures and news, as well as providing updates, news headlines, flight times and an inflight airshow to follow the flight’s progress and see the world from 40,000 feet through external cameras.
Emirates is also rolling out installation of a new Thales’ AVANT Up system for its 50-strong fleet of new Airbus A350 aircraft. At an investment of over US$ 350 million, the next-generation inflight entertainment on the Emirates’ A350’s offer a suite of ground-breaking and innovative features. The game-changing technology includes Optiq 4k QLED HDR displays, the capacity to host triple the amount of content, better ‘live’ television options, innovative user-friendly interfaces and enhanced passenger connectivity.
Emirates receives 2026 APEX WORLD CLASS™ award for 6th consecutive year
Introduced in 2021, Emirates has once again received an APEX WORLD CLASS™ award for its suite of products and services beloved by customers across the world, for the 6th consecutive year. Emirates was recognised and defined as world class across all categories, including safety and well-being, sustainability, service and guest experience, food and beverage, brand integrity, hospitality, personalisation, comfort, connectivity and many more. The APEX WORLD CLASS™ award is a top achievement, audited by industry professionals on real flights in real time.
The 2026 APEX WORLD CLASS™ award is another testament to Emirates’ customer promise of ‘fly better’, and builds on multiple other accolades received in recent months. Emirates claimed the top spot as ‘Best Long Haul Airline’ at The Telegraph Travel Awards 2025. Recognised for its world-class products, exceptional services, and unmatched travel experiences – the airline was voted the best long-haul carrier in the world, by 20,000 Telegraph Travel readers. Emirates continues to be the airline of choice for customers worldwide, and was also recognised as ‘2025’s Most Recommended Global Brand’ by YouGov – the only airline to be featured on the top 10 global list.