Australian Airline Qantas will roll out iPads for every one of its passengers on its fleet of Boeing 767 aircraft. Earlier in the year, Qantas carried out a trial to see if the iPads could fulfill its needs for in-flight entertainment. The trial has been a huge success and according to ZDnet, it’s all systems go.
As of May this year, there were 23 Boeing 767-300 aircraft, according to the Qantas site, each with between 229 and 254 seats, meaning that more than 5,000 iPads would be required to kit out the fleet. However, Qantas said it was currently reviewing retirement options for a few of the aircraft.
The system will roll out to the first aircraft in the fourth quarter of this year. Most of the flights offering the service will be on Australia's east coast routes, with some also flying to Perth. The service will be free of charge. The airline was still assessing whether it will extend the system so that customers can use their own tablets to access the entertainment.
Apple is certainly a favorite with Qantas, it has already equipped its pilots with 64GB iPads to store all of their flight manuals and reduce the amount of paperwork that they need to carry. It has also announced that it will be dumping its BlackBerry smartphones in favour of iPhones in the near future too.
iPads, as a way to access in-flight entertainment make perfect sense. They are small, personal and easy to use; even for the first time user. The rollout of iPads across Qantas’ fleet of Boeing 767 aircraft will surely be the first of many in the future. Looking around me on flights that I have taken recently, iPads can be seen everywhere and are definitely the first choice travel companion. Have you noticed any other airlines adopting the iPad as the chosen form of in-flight entertainment?
Source: ZDNet Image: F4Aviation
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