BA ‘OnAir’ service | iPad for every customer

About the time you read this, there’s a good chance I’ll be in New York

- courtesy of British Airways who (at the time of writing) had just invited me to celebrate the anniversary of its bespoke London City to JFK flight route. For those that haven’t heard, this well-heeled service is, essentially, a private jet, equipped with just 32 business-class seats. It operates on the old Concorde flight paths, giving it priority landing in London and New York.

It also offers an ‘OnAir’ service that allows you to text and email (i.e keep working) as the plane climbs past 10,000ft. This City Airbus 318 is fitted with a miniature cell network and satellite link that dupes your phone into thinking that it’s connected to a roaming provider. Of course, it will charge you accordingly, but for those who time is money (not me, really), it’s a feature worth the multi-thousand pound airfare.

It operates on the old Concorde flight paths…

However, for this special flight and from this point forward, BA is also introducing one extra service: iPads for every passenger. Naturally, this is what attracted me to celebrate with BA as it’s the first time I’ve heard of an airline ditching in-flight entertainment for something a bit more upmarket. I’ve also been told that the on-board purser will also be using iPad for ‘improved customer service’.

So, I’m hoping an iPad packed full of the latest films, TV shows and music. I’m hoping free internet connectivity for the duration of the flight. I’m hoping that the pre-take off Champagne is served on the iPad itself. But I’m also wondering what the future of air travel will look like. I’ve heard about multimedia screens that can access digital media on your home network, sub-orbital planes that can fly from London to Sydney in three hours and energy efficient flying machines that reduce carbon emissions near to zero.

However, what I really want from this trip in particular? A smile from NYC immigration officials. Just one.