Mexican airline rents iPods to passengers

19 February 2007 10:18 GMT / By Amber Maitland

Coffee, Tea, or iPod?

That's the question flight attendants on one Mexican airline are already asking passengers.

Although several US airlines are in talks with Apple about offering iPod seat connections, Volaris has taken a short cut and simply bought the players to distribute to passengers.

Its flight attendants have been offering them to passengers free of charge to watch Mexican TV shows and listen to popular music, but will soon charge $5 for the privilege.

"We're the first to use iPods. We like it because no one else has it", PR office Alfonso Collantes told Reuters.

On some airlines, like Virgin Atlantic, passengers can watch a variety of TV shows, movies, and listen to music thanks to the in-flight entertainment system and personal video displays in the headrest in front of them; therefore, they would have no need for an airline-supplied iPod.

But iPod integration means that passengers can watch their own stored media files on the video display.

Full tags

Audio, MP3 players, iPod, Airlines