Tags: airlines, iphone

Phew! Just when it looked like all hope was lost for the service behind those crazy ugly, 5-dollars-per-minute phones that airlines once jammed into the back of headrests, JetBlue’s LiveTV has stepped in to save the day.

In 2006, Verizon pulled Airfone from just about every plane it had been installed on. At the end of 2007, Airfone announced they’d be closing up shop completely in just over 12 months, be it that they couldn’t find someone to buy’em up.

LiveTV has announced that they have finished the necessary negotiations and plan to take over Airfone starting January 1st, 2009. No financial details have been disclosed. LiveTV will be using Airfone to expand their “KiteLine” service, which lets passengers text, IM, and email from their seat (for free, no less). As the bulky handsets were apparently a bit of a failure on commercial flights, it’s likely that JetBlue’s mainly in this for the “100 air-to-ground US communications towers” they’ll be getting out of the deal.

Tags: airlines, jetblue, live phone

iPhone is about to hit Singapore and the country’s airline announced iPod and iPhone connectivity on its newly reconfigured, all-Business Class Airbus A340-500 flights between New York and Singapore, and between Los Angeles and Singapore. According to the official release, passengers are able to enjoy their personal audio and video content from their iPod or iPhone on Singapore Airlines’ KrisWorld in-flight entertainment system. Each seat features a 15.4-inch wide LCD screen as well as active noise-cancellation headphones.

The integrated 9-pin connection on KrisWorld uses a unique in-flight cable that supports iPod and iPhone via the 30-pin connector, including in-seat power supply and high quality audio. iPod and iPhone will still allow for the announcements and instructions made by Singapore Airlines cabin crew and pilots to be heard even while content is being played. Customers can take advantage of iPhone’s airplane mode to safely use the iPhone through the integrated system.

iPod and iPhone integration commenced with Singapore Airlines’ A345 non-stop flights from Newark - Singapore on May 15, and on the carrier’s Los Angeles - Singapore non-stops from August.

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Tags: airlines, iphone, ipod

The airline industry is taking a page out of the playbook used during the gas crisis of the ’70s: Putting on the brakes. In order to save fuel (and money), at least one airline is simply slowing down its planes.

Brussels Airlines in Belgium is the first to publicly announce such a move, dropping average flight speed by 10km per hour (6.2 miles per hour), which it says will save it 1 million euros ($1.6 million) on jet fuel every year. The airline says its flights, which mostly consist of short hops across Europe, will be longer by only a minute or two as a result of the change.Brussels Air is also asking the EU to evaluate its messy air traffic system, which restricts certain countries’ airspace to certain airlines or charges extra for flying through them, forcing planes to fly in a meandering pattern along borders as they get from one country to another. It was recently revealed that some planes take much longer routes than necessary in order to avoid hefty charges imposed by some countries for passing through: Even with extra fuel charges, it’s just cheaper to go around. But that, of course, burns more gas, wastes time, and creates addtional greenhouse gasses. No good for anyone.

No word on whether any other airlines, overseas or domestically, are planning to announce similar moves (though many could slow their flights and no one would be the wiser), but Brussels Airlines deserves credit for trying to think of unique solutions to the fuel price challenge.

Tags: airlines, airplane, brussels, fuel prices