How Emirates is Capitalising on The Metaverse
In anticipation of the Dubai Metaverse Assembly, a previous article explored examples of how the metaverse is used in aviation. One of the exciting announcements made at the assembly was Emirates’ plan to train thousands of new cabin crew in the metaverse.
The Dubai-based airline is currently recruiting thousands of new cabin crew in an effort to keep up with rising travel demand. The metaverse offers an efficient solution to this strain on Emirates’ in-person training facilities.
Adel Ahmed Al Redha, Emirates’ Chief Operating Officer (COO) said at the Dubai Metaverse Assembly the metaverse would enable cabin crew to train in a virtual reality environment and even participate in simulated real-life scenarios. The airline plans for around 4,000 recruits to be training in the metaverse by next year.
“In training, we’ve currently got 16,000 cabin crew but by the middle of next year, we plan to reach close to 20,000 cabin crew. We are continuously evolving our onboard service as well, whether it’s food or how we serve our customers. Without this technology, we will not be able to deliver this training in an efficient and accurate manner to our crew.”
The metaverse sessions will supplement the hands-on training sessions including aircraft evacuation, ditching, and medical emergency scenarios.
Aside from streamlining the training process, the COO understands the metaverse as securing the airline’s relationship with the younger generations. He envisions it as cultivating “the right environment” for younger customers.
“Look at the metaverse, look at NFTs, look at all this and where it came from. It came from the youth. We need to understand how the people in their 30s would like to interact because they are the future of these businesses, not us.”
Emirates are one of the major airlines really throwing themselves into the metaverse. In addition to the above use cases, Adel Ahmed Al Redha positioned the metaverse as cutting out the “middleman.” The plans to use the metaverse to remove said “middleman” extend from training, to operations, sales, and overall customer experience. Moreover, the airline is planning involvement with launching NFTs and metaverse experiences for customers including selecting seats, duty-free shopping, and airports and hotel tours all through the metaverse.
Article by Jess Brownlow
