Delta Airlines is equipping its flight attendants with an iPhone 12. The handset’s augmented reality capabilities will be used for training as well as locating catering items stored on planes.
Dozens of airplanes still have equipment subject to cellular phone interference. This is one of the reasons why iPhones and Androids have to be in airplane mode during flight. Fortunately, this danger will soon go away. The best-known cockpit system to have problems with cellular radios has to be replaced before the end of 2019.
Does that mean in-flight phone calls will become part of travel?
The decision to ban laptops and tablets on flights to the United States from 10 Middle Eastern countries has put a hurting on airlines, a new report claims.
The new rules, put into place earlier this year, negatively affected long-haul airlines Etihad and Emirates, according to the Associated Press. Countries affected by the laptop ban include United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
Two airlines from the Middle East are coming to the rescue of fliers that have been effected by President Donald Trump’s recent executive order banning the use of tablets and laptops on flights to the United States.
Both Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways launched new electronics loaner programs for passengers this week, giving customers the option to rent an iPad while their own device is safely stored inside checked baggage.
American Airlines has now ditched heavy flight manuals and become the first major commercial carrier to introduce iPads to all of its cockpits in a move that is expected to save more than $1 million in fuel costs every year.
The company first began piloting (get it?) the scheme back in April, when it used Apple’s device alongside traditional paper manuals, which typically weigh around 35 pounds. Now those manuals have been phased out completely in favor of digital versions.
In-Flight Wi-Fi service, Gogo, released some numbers today on their blog, showing that Apple devices are still the most popular way passengers are accessing the internet via the service while flying above 10,000 feet.
Tablets and smartphones, according to Gogo, make up 67 percent of the devices used to connect to the Wi-Fi service on airplanes. Tablets themselves are the most popular, with 35 percent, closely followed by 33 percent of folks using laptops and 32 percent using smartphones for their mile-high internet surfing sessions.
It gets even more interesting when you break down which tablets and smartphones are being used.
Last week, we reported on the IT migration that Australian airline Qantas was undertaking. That migration and overall technology upgrade includes replacing the airline’s 1,300 BlackBerry handsets with iPhones, swapping hefty pilot flight bags for iPads, and adding an on-demand entertainment system to is fleet of Boeing 767 aircraft that’s accessed using iPads provided to each passenger.
It seems that the migration strategy is even bigger than just those three components. The airline is also looking to overhaul its desktop systems as part of an upgrade to Microsoft’s Office 365 cloud suite. The migration will be completed in partnership with Fujitsu and will include both on-premise and cloud data stores as well as virtual desktops courtesy of Citrix.
The friendly skies have been cozying up to the iPad for awhile now. First, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration allowed pilots to replace hundreds of pounds of flight manuals and log books for Apple’s tablet, and now a new airline is promising to save fuel, increase profits and make their customers happier by phasing out the in-flight entertainment system in favor of a fleet of iPads.
Our opinion of the government has never been lower, and every day there is ample proof why. Take the FAA, for example. Despite the absolute lack of evidence that your iPhone can knock a plane from the sky, passengers are still told to turn off their phones. The reason why such a Luddite-like rule exists without any proof? Because there’s no proof iPhones won’t hurt planes, either. Don’t get whiplash shaking your head in utter amazement.
Here’s a question for the nervous flyers: would you be reassured to know that an iPad was scheduling your plane’s upkeep?
Flightdocs, a Florida-based company that helps airlines keep track of the moving parts that keep the friendly skies safe, has just launched an iPad app.
