Emirates to serve 500,000 Christmas meals at 40,000 feet

The festive spirit is in full swing, as Emirates prepares to serve 500,000 Christmas meals across all classes to customers travelling on select flights from 9 to 31 December. In addition to a delicious festive menu, travellers can also enjoy nostalgic films and holiday treats across all cabin classes on board and on the ground.

Christmas menus

Emirates is bringing back its signature festive menu, following the warm reception from customers in previous years. Customers travelling from Dubai to select routes in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States, South Africa and the Philippines, can kickstart their holiday season with a taste of Christmas on board.

Passengers in Economy Class will be able to indulge in a festive meal of turkey slices with mashed potato, green peas, baby carrots and cranberry jus lié prepared by Emirates’ award-winning chefs. For dessert, Emirates will serve milk chocolate mousse topped with a festive chocolate button.

Customers in First and Business Class can enjoy roasted turkey breast and apricot stuffing, roast potatoes with creamy brussels sprouts with turkey bacon and cranberry jus lié. For dessert, passengers will be served festive sweets such as a Santa-inspired chocolate cake or a chocolate gingerbread cake.

On Emirates A380 routes, First and Business Class customers will also get a taste of Christmas in the iconic Onboard Lounge with a limited edition Santa’s Spiced Amarula Cocktail, mince pies and special treats like a gingerbread snowman cookies and cranberry, coconut and white chocolate truffles.

The First Class goodie basket, available in all suites, will also be revamped to include holiday flavours including Butlers Chocolate and Orange Bar, gingerbread popcorn, Lakrids Salted Caramel liquorice and chocolate and roast turkey and stuffing flavoured crisps.

Throughout the festive season, passengers will be able to take advantage of Emirates’ wide beverage selection to complement their Christmas meals on board. Travellers can enjoy some of the finest wines and champagnes served in the skies. In addition, Emirates has a bespoke spirits offering across all classes, with a range of whiskeys, cognacs, gins, vodka and flavoured liqueurs amongst others. The spirits offering includes a mix of niche, hand-crafted brands as well as popular and well-loved spirits such as Hennessy cognacs, including the exclusive Hennessy Paradis in First Class. 

Onboard treats for young travellers

Young travellers across all classes can also tuck into a specially prepared turkey dinner over the festive period. Emirates’ young customers will be surprised with a chocolate snowman cookie as a treat with all lunches and dinners. Kids in First Class can also enjoy a decadent hot chocolate blend served with marshmallows and star-shaped cookies.

Young flyers will also be able collect a limited Emirates Fly with Me Animal toy, with Lumi the Snowman available on board for a limited time in December to offer children a travel companion.

In addition, limited edition Polaroid photo card sleeves will be available on all flights for both kids and adults.

Festive films on ‘ice’

To get travellers into the spirit of the holidays, Emirates’ award-winning inflight entertainment system ‘ice’ will feature a range of Christmas classics, including The Polar Express, Elf, Home Alone, Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer, It’s a Wonderful Life and many more. Emirates’ holiday entertainment catalogue also includes international films and Christmas TV specials.

Travellers can enjoy up to 4,500 channels of on demand inflight entertainment. Emirates’ ‘ice’ aims to create a better-than-home experience this Christmas with the latest and best movies, great television and an extensive music selection. Customers can also create their bespoke holiday playlists ahead of their travels and sync it to their seats once on board with the latest playlist syncing feature on the Emirates app.

Celebrations on ground

All 41 Emirates lounges across the network, including the seven lounges in Dubai International Airport, will serve a range of traditional Christmas dishes including roasted turkey, and a wide selection of festive sweets like stollen cake, from 15 to 31 December. Emirates lounges in Dubai will also serve a selection of unique ice cream flavours over the holidays including gingerbread flavour and coconut caramel.

Coffee fiends can look out for Coffee Planet carts in the lounges which will offer a gingerbread and caramelo lattes.

Holiday gifting

Throughout December, customers can find great last-minute gift ideas in the newly launched EmiratesRED inflight duty-free shopping magazine available in the seat pocket and EmiratesRED TV on ‘ice’. The catalogue is packed with over 150 products at attractive prices, featuring some of the world’s most desirable brands and the latest must-haves. This includes brands exclusive to the Emirates airline, such as perfumes from Boadicea the Victorious and premium skincare brand Sea Buck Switzerland. Customers travelling from 19 to 23 December can enjoy a 20% discount when spending over $200 on EmiratesRED purchases.

Shoppers can also get gifts from the Emirates Official Store which has new Christmas-inspired products in the festive airline collection. These include the beloved Christmas jumper, pyjama sets, Emirates festive greeting cards, Christmas sweaters and holiday mugs. 

Emirates’ festive celebrations on board and on the ground are part of its commitment to enhance its customer experience with unique and seasonal offerings. In addition to the annual Christmas offering, Emirates also celebrates occasions such as Diwali, Eid, Lunar New Year and Oktoberfest.