10. Cabin crew
British Airways has armed 1,800 senior cabin crew with an iPad 2 across its entire long and short haul fleet in a move to help with on-board customer service. The move follows a successful trial over a few months in the summer where 100 of the airline’s top crew members were given the device so they can quickly identify where each customer is sitting, their Executive Club status, any special meal requirements, as well as customer service updates. The latter means that any issues can be logged with ground-based colleagues around the network prior to departure, so solutions can be delivered while the flight is airborne. The roll-out will see the addition of destination content to the iPads. BA’s system runs the in-house Enhanced Service Platform app on iPad 2 devices with 3G data service. The iPad then goes into flight mode for the duration — except on BA’s all-business class London City to New York JFK flights, where there’s inflight wifi over the Atlantic. The crew on those flights can get live update over the app. An additional benefit of the iPads is the fault reporting function. If there’s a problem with a seat, entertainment screen or anything else on the aircraft, the crew can note it down on the app while the plane is in the air. It’ll be sent automatically to the when the iPad is switched back on after landing.