You can fly a plane with an iPad but airlines still won’t loan you one to watch “Friends with Benefits” on it while sitting in coach.
Australian airlines Qantas is once again touting its iPad-inflight entertainment scheme– it has been talking about getting it on board since June 2010 – but the concept has still failed to launch in any meaningful way.
Spokespeople are now saying Qantas will trial the iPads on just one one Boeing 767-300, starting in October for six weeks and only on domestic flights. The same airlines has also announced the airline’s low-cost Jetstar subsidiary has long-standing plans to deploy in-flight iPads — a trial they say is delayed due to iPad 2 procurement issues.
Even saving on fuel costs hasn’t speeded up the launch. Alison Webster of Qantas says there are “significant weight savings on aircraft that used wireless technology, compared with seat-back IFE systems.”
Meanwhile, as other airline companies are piloting programs for pilots to go paperless thanks to the iPad, you are pretty much own when it comes to iPads in the passenger cabin.
Sure, you can BYOD (bring your own device), as savvy travelers have done since the dawn of the laptop.
It’s just with all the hassles connected with modern air travel, you’d think they’d want to invest in keeping air rage to a minimum.
