BA is to issue “thousands of iPads” to senior cabin crew from next week, following a successful trial involving 100 cabin staff.
The carrier will equip 2,000 senior crew across its short and long-haul network with new iPad 2s, allowing them to access data such as individual passenger’s Executive Club status, previous travel arrangements, special meal requests and onward travel plans.
Timetables, safety manuals, customer services updates and destination guides will also be pre-loaded onto the iPads, to allow crew to offer “a premium and more thoughtful onboard service to customers in every cabin”.
The tablets will be refreshed via 3G prior to departure, and will allow crew to more easily follow up on in-flight customer service issues once back on the ground.
On the carrier’s all-business class flights between London City and New York crew will also be able to use the iPads to connect to the internet in-flight, as the A318 aircraft are fitted with OnAir wifi technology.
BA says the technology will replace the “long cumbersome scrolls of paper” normally handed to crew prior to departure, and Frank van der Post, British Airways’ managing director, brands and customer experience, said that “The possibilities for future development of the iPad are endless".
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For more information visit ba.com.
Report by Mark Caswell
