uTalk expands language learning deal with Emirates

By October 3, 2018 May 5th, 2020 Featured, IFEC

The language-learning company, uTalk, is building on its partnership with Emirates with a new deal for language lessons on the in-flight entertainment system.

Passengers on Emirates flights will now be able to enjoy free language lessons, taught not just in English, but also in Arabic, Mandarin, German and Spanish, enabling passengers from across the Middle East, China and Europe to learn languages in their mother tongue.

The company said this latest collaboration between uTalk and Emirates will potentially benefit “huge numbers” of air travellers, highlighting that Arabic is used by around 422 million speakers across the Arab world, in the Middle East and North Africa, while Mandarin is the official language of China, but is also spoken in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.

uTalk sales director Brett Savidge said: “We are delighted to roll out the next phase of the uTalk language experience with Emirates. It was always our goal to make uTalk available to people travelling across the globe and our partnership with Emirates allows us to do this.”

uTalk teamed up with Emirates back in May to launch Phase One of its ‘Learn as you Fly’ scheme, offering English-speaking Emirates passengers lessons in 15 languages on the ice in-flight entertainment system.

Now uTalk and Emirates are rolling out Phase Two, giving international travellers the option to choose German, Spanish, Arabic or Mandarin as their ‘source language’ to learn other languages on board.

Speaking to Inflight, Savidge said uTalk’s ‘Learn as you Fly’ scheme is all about the passenger experience: “The benefit of Phase 2 for the airline and passengers is that it is suddenly opening up to passengers who couldn’t use it before as it was only offered in English.”

The deal has been timed with the intention of benefiting passengers flying home for Christmas as well as for frequent flyers on business trips.

Savidge also added that Phase 2 will be timed for the a peak travel period in the Middle East.

On the benefits for passengers he added that on long journeys there can be an element of boredom for passengers, and uTalk’s language lessons offer “something a bit different” enabling them to use their time in-flight to learn a new skill.

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