Let me entertain you: Virgin’s new inflight system
Virgin Atlantic has launched a new touch screen inflight entertainment system which will be installed across its fleet of 10 A330-300 aircraft to be delivered over the next two years.
Passengers flying out of Manchester on Saturday were the first to test the new Panasonic system, which Virgin claims is the "easiest and most intuitive touch screen system in the air".
Director of product and service for Virgin Atlantic, Dee Cooper, said: “Virgin Atlantic has always led the industry in inflight entertainment and technology – we were the first airline to provide all passengers with seat back television screens nearly 20 years ago and have since then been the first British airline to introduce texting and emailing facilities onboard.
“The new system Jam is simple and fun to use and is more like a tablet touchscreen entertainment screen.”
Later this year Virgin Atlantic travellers flying on the A330 will be able to send and receive emails and texts on their Blackberries, handheld PDAs and other mobile devices.
Features on the new inflight entertainment system include:
* a facility for passengers to rate movies and music with a thumbs up/thumbs down
* an option to save movies, TV shows, CDS and games for later in the flight
* tips and suggestions from fellow passengers on all Virgin’s destinations and the option for passengers to leave their own tips
* live news reports
* in Premium Economy, a touch-screen remote control handset so passengers can watch two programmes at the same time, one on the handset and one on the main screen
* the option for passengers to plug in USBs to watch their own content; in Premium Economy they can plug in their own devices.
By Linsey McNeill
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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