Australian Airline to Give Passengers iPads In-Flight

The Australian airline Qantas already provides an iPhone app for frequent flyers. Now the company is taking things further by offering all passengers in-flight entertainment on the iPad. A new app called QStreaming will launch initially on board the B767 fleet, along with iPads for each passenger to use while in the air.

Qantas plans to equip all of its planes with iPads not only for passengers, but for pilots as well. The FAA recently approved the use of iPads in the cockpit to replace bulky paper maps. The company also announced it will be ditching BlackBerry for the iPhone, moving all of its mobile devices to Apple iOS.
The addition of iPads to Qantas means big sales for Apple. Qantas will need over 5,000 units to cover all of the passengers carried by its B767 fleet of aircraft, along with another 2,200 to equip cockpits across the airline with the device. Switching from paper navigation charts will save the airline upwards of 1.5 million dollars per year.
According to 9to5Mac, Qantas is using Panasonic's eXW solution to make over 200 hours of on-demand IFE content available to every passenger on its B767 fleet free of charge. The iPads will be placed in each passenger's seat pocket where one normally finds in-flight magazines and air sickness bags. Time will tell if other airlines follow Qantas' lead.

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