News from April 2009

New inflight entertainment system installed on Continental flights

Published: 20 April 2009

Passengers flying across the Atlantic on Continental Airlines' Belfast-New York service can now avail of an upgraded entertainment system on the Boeing 757 aircraft.

The new inflight entertainment (IFE) system has been available in the BusinessFirst cabins of these aircraft since early 2007 and has now been installed in economy class on the entire B757 fleet, which operates the Belfast service.

Barry Jackson, Continental area sales manager for Northern Ireland, says: "Passengers will find this new entertainment experience much more user friendly.  Our passengers in BusinessFirst really enjoy the new system and we are sure our economy class passengers will too."

The system features individual seatback video screens in economy class for the first time on the Boeing 757-200, and allows customers to choose from up to 25 movies, 25 TV shows and 50 CDs of music of various genres.

Once the system is activated by the crew, customers may watch the programming whenever they choose, controlling the programs with easy-to-use touch-screens to stop, pause, rewind and fast forward. The new entertainment system also has 20 video games and an interactive Berlitz Word Traveler program that teaches foreign language.

As part of the upgrade, AC power ports have been installed throughout the economy cabin, providing electricity for the growing number of portable electronic devices like laptop computers, personal DVD players and digital music players that customers are bringing on board. The power ports accept the standard electric plugs from most countries around the world. No special adapter is necessary.

Continental operates a daily non-stop service between Belfast International Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport.  Passengers can connect to over 200 destinations across the Americas from the New York hub.  The most popular onward destinations include Orlando, Montreal and Las Vegas.

Barry Jackson, Continental area sales manager for Northern Ireland, is pictured on board the Continental Boeing 757 with the new inflight entertainment system.