Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1192401
COMMERCIAL maltatoday | SUNDAY • 15 DECEMBER 2019 17 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 December 9 to 31. In addition to a delicious festive menu, travellers can also enjoy nos- talgic films and holiday treats across all cabin classes on board and on the ground. Emirates is bringing back its signature festive menu, follow- ing the warm reception from customers in previous years. Customers travelling from Dubai to select routes in Aus- tralia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States, South Africa and the Philippines, can kick start their holiday season with a taste of Christmas on board. Passengers in Economy Class will be able to indulge in a fes- tive meal of turkey slices with mashed potato, green peas, baby carrots and cranberry jus lié prepared by Emirates' award-winning chefs. For des- sert, Emirates will serve milk chocolate mousse topped with a festive chocolate button. Customers in First and Busi- ness Class can enjoy roasted turkey breast and apricot stuff- ing, 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 cus- tomers will also get a taste of Christmas in the iconic On- board Lounge with a limited edition Santa's Spiced Amarula Cocktail, mince pies and spe- cial treats like a gingerbread snowman cookies and cranber- ry, coconut & white chocolate truffles. The First Class goodie basket, available in all suites, will also be revamped to include holi- day flavours including Butlers Chocolate and Orange Bar, Gingerbread popcorn, Lakrids Salted Caramel liquorice and chocolate and roast turkey and stuffing flavoured crisps. Young travellers across all classes can also tuck into a spe- cially prepared turkey dinner over the festive period. Emir- ates' 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. To get travellers into the spirit of the holidays, Emir- ates' award-winning inflight entertainment system ice will feature a range of Christmas classics including The Polar Express, Elf, Home Alone, Ru- dolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer, It's a Wonderful Life and many more. Emirates' holiday en- tertainment catalogue also in- cludes international films and Christmas TV specials. Travellers can enjoy up to 4,500 channels of on demand inflight entertainment. Emir- ates' ice aims to create a bet- ter-than-home experience this Christmas with the latest and best movies, great television and an extensive music selec- tion. 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. All 41 Emirates lounges across the network, including the 7 lounges in Dubai Interna- tional Airport will serve a range of traditional Christmas dishes including roasted turkey, and a wide selection of festive sweets like stollen cake, from 15 De- cember to 31 December. Emir- ates lounges in Dubai will also serve a selection of unique ice cream flavours over the holi- days including gingerbread fla- vour. Shoppers can also get gifts from the Emirates Official Store which has new Christ- mas inspired products in the festive airline collection. These include the beloved Christmas jumper, pyjama sets, Emirates festive greeting cards, Christ- mas sweaters and holiday mugs. These are also available in stores and online at https:// www.emirates.store/. Emirates' festive celebrations on board and on the ground are part of its commitment to enhance its customer experi- ence with unique and seasonal offerings. In addition to the an- nual Christmas offering, Emir- ates also celebrates occasions such as Diwali, Eid, Lunar New Year and Oktoberfest. Emirates to serve 500,000 Christmas meals at 40,000 feet IN a society where safety and security if of growing para- mount importance, critical in areas pertaining to foresight and implementation, the Plan- ning Authority and over 40 entities have been working on a project that ensures reliable data capture, analysis and in- novation. SIntegraM, an EU project that went beyond the state of the art, is financed by the European Regional Development Fund and the Planning Authority. It is driven by Professor Saviour Formosa in a conceptualised 25-year transformation process initiated in 1995 that allows for the change from paper-based maps to digital spatial data to real-time capture and finally immersion in the virtual spac- es. The Project is run by Ms Ashley Hili as project Leader and over 60 experts across the public service and public sector with international collabora- tors delivering on the process. A first in all steps, the tech- nology available to the Maltese Islands is unprecedented, rang- ing from aerial drones (one of 2m width is only one of 23 in the world), to a space-age ter- restrial vehicle scanning the roads to an autonomous un- derwater vehicle that is scan- ning our waters. A first also is the installation of a Virtual Immersion Lab which allows scientists and us- ers to scan a building, quarry, city and through a series of programmes, built that entity in a virtual world and allows users to walk within it. For those interested in mo- bile interaction, SIntegraM has acquired Oculus Rift and the most innovative technology ensconced in the Mixed Reality Domain, a technology call Leap One, from Magic Leap. We are taking reality as we saw it in the past to the present to the future. Talking to Jean de La Vallette, experiencing the Sec- ond World War as it occurred from the places it occurred in to futuristic environments of how Mount Xiberras will look in 2300 is within grasp. This is so innovative that it is serving as a launching pad for diverse domains to be able to study reality and propose change before it happens. An example would be to under- stand how a landscape would change once a quarry is reha- bilitated, a hotel is built un- derwater, sea-level rise and extreme weather will affect a town... and a myriad other sce- narios. This brings in also sociolo- gists, psychologists, first re- sponders, post-disaster man- agement, disaster victim identification, crowd moni- toring, erosion studies, traffic movements and other scenari- os towards a holistic approach to solving society's ail and serve as a foresight tool for prepared- ness. SIntegraM is a foundation project that has revolutionised data as we know it: from 2D, it is converting Malta in 3D, Vir- tual Reality, Augmented Real- ity and now Mixed Reality. Whilst other countries are planning such changes for the next EU programme 2021- 2027, Malta has embarked up- on, affected and implemented such changes. Of earth, sky and underwater: Malta's first in Europe high-tech project