User-friendly ... Jetstar has loaded its iPads for hire with films, magazines, games and TV shows.
Jetstar is pioneering iPads as inflight entertainment, writes Annie Stevens.
IT'S eye-stickingly early at Auckland Airport. Passengers clutch cups of coffee and ignore their travelling companions. It seems an unlikely time for a world-first event but one discovers that these are not necessarily glamorous. There are a few camera crews milling about the departure lounge and passengers glance at them with a faint flicker of curiosity.
The pilot's on-board announcement that this is the inaugural Jetstar iPad flight is met mostly with some indifferent eyebrow-raising.
There's more interest when the flight attendant announces that 24 people with a star on their tray tables have been given the chance to try one of the iPads that Jetstar will be rolling out as its new inflight entertainment. The devices are loaded with films, magazines, games and TV shows - enough to occupy most for the three-hour trans-Tasman flight.
With a deal struck with ACP Magazines, there's everything from Wheels to the Australian Women's Weekly available to read. PDF versions of the entire magazine, they are a bit clunky and awkward to navigate, especially if you are used to clean and curated magazine and newspaper iPad apps. I do appreciate having a choice of magazines, though.
There are seven new-release movies - including Beginners and Horrible Bosses and a couple of Japanese, Australian and kids' films - and episodes of television shows. As you would expect on an iPad, the picture and sound quality is sharp and the sound clear.
I have not really tried any games since my brother and I played some seriously competitive Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo but, in the spirit of research, I open up the well-stocked games folder - there are 12 in total - and attempt Blokus. It's an iPad version of the strategic board game of the same name. I'm not too good at it, probably because I am not too strategic.
For Jetstar - the first airline in the world to go with iPads as the inflight entertainment - the decision to do so was based on the device's huge popularity, quality and user-friendliness. "We felt it [the iPad] would best suit our inflight entertainment," says the chief executive of Jetstar, David Hall, at a press conference upon landing in Melbourne.
Preloaded iPads such as those on Jetstar take away some of the angst of trying to work out which apps to download, how many publications is too many and a general information overload.
Children can switch to the "kids' zone", which this month includes the Smurfs movie, cute illustrated books and Wiggles video clips.
There aren't plans at the moment to connect the inflight iPads to wi-fi. While one of the best things about flying is that brief patch of being disconnected from the world, the 24-hour news cycle and former boyfriends, having internet on the iPads would be great for utilising newspaper and magazine apps.
It's fun to walk up and down the aisle to spy on what people are using. After cross-referencing with fellow passengers, it seems a high proportion of people are watching Dolly Parton music clips, for which I have only respect. Games and TV seem to be other popular choices.
So will people hire them with their own hard-earned cash?
"Definitely," says Hugo, a Kiwi who has just moved to Melbourne. What did he use the iPad for? "Games, movies ..."
"Dolly Parton?" asks one of the PR girls standing nearby .
"Yeah," he says sheepishly.
Annie Stevens works in the iPad team at The Sun-Herald and The Sydney Morning Herald and was a guest of Jetstar.
Need to know
- The iPads can be pre-booked or hired on-board for $10-$15 and content will be updated monthly.
- The iPads will be rolled out across domestic, trans-Tasman and short-haul international services from Australia and New Zealand in the coming weeks.
- Initially, 3000 iPads will be rolled out with plans to increase this when iPads are placed on to the Jetstar Asia network.
- From December they will be on all Australian and New Zealand A320/A321 and A330 domestic, trans-Tasman, short-haul international and long-haul operations.
Sign up for the Traveller Deals newsletter
Get exclusive travel deals delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up now.