Emirates and Dubai Future Accelerators, an initiative of Dubai Future Foundation, have launched the sixth cohort of the Accelerators programme with an opening ceremony to welcome the seven participant teams at Emirates Towers. The opening event was attended by Adel Al Redha, Emirates’ Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer, Khalfan Belhoul, CEO, Dubai Future Foundation, along with senior representatives from both organisations.

The Dubai Future Accelerators programme brings together innovative tech start-ups from around the world to collaborate with government and corporate entities in Dubai to develop solutions around specific challenges outlined by the host entities. For the first time in Dubai Future Accelerators programme, Emirates will have a dedicated cohort of seven teams working exclusively to address the challenges put forth by the airline.

Commenting on the launch, Adel Al Redha, Emirates’ Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer said, “Emirates is delighted to welcome the participants of the sixth cohort of the Dubai Future Accelerators programme. We joined the Dubai Future Accelerators initiative in 2017 as it offered great opportunities to present some of our challenges to be solved by innovators from around the world, supporting our work to transform the customer journey into a better experience and support a more efficient day-to-day dynamic operation.

“We look forward to a fruitful nine weeks of working together and we hope that the interactions will result in a number of innovative proposals and deliverables in addressing the specific challenges we have outlined during the Dubai Future Accelerators,” he added.

Khalfan Belhoul, Dubai Future Foundation CEO, said, “The Dubai Future Accelerators programme aims to pair government and corporate entities with start-ups and companies to address key industry challenges as well as co-create the future for the advancement of humanity. Emirates’ participation in cohort six is a testament to our aim and efforts, and is seen as a step closer towards shaping a better future for Dubai. This participation also works towards strengthening the aviation industry and passenger experience through the adoption of innovative technologies.

The three challenges defined by Emirates include using the latest technologies in blockchain, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, build a platform that will redefine business-to-business purchasing and procurement for the airline; creating an integrated platform to support a seamless pre-airport arrival experience for customers travelling on Emirates, and developing an online system that consolidates all the different processes and steps involved in a cabin crew duty travel The seven shortlisted teams taking part in the programme originate from six different countries including two teams from the UAE. The shortlisted companies were selected from a pool of 245 applicant teams from 59 countries.

During the programme, the teams will have multiple opportunities to engage with key personnel within the Emirates Group to gather insights and refine their proposals.

At the end of the nine week programme, the teams from the cohort will present their final proposals and Proof of Concepts to senior stakeholders from the Emirates Group. These proposals will be evaluated and select proposals may be considered for further development if they meet the business objectives set by the airline.