British Airways has revealed that it will be rolling out VR in-flight entertainment to its first-class passengers. The service will be available for passengers traveling from London’s Heathrow airport to New York’s JFK airport. The service will be available for passengers traveling for the rest of 2019.
The airline is leveraging SkyLights’ specialist VR viewer ‘AlloSky’, to roll out these services to passengers’ onboard flights. Through this, passengers can see movies, documentaries, and travel programs in 2D, 3D or 360-degree formats. Aside movies, the airline will also provide therapeutic programs like guided meditation and sound therapy for passengers who have a phobia for flying.
Although the airline leverages SkyLights’ device to show passengers its first-class travel experience in Heathrow Terminal 5 ticket counter, this will be the first time they will be rolling out the service in-flight.
According to Sajida Ismail, British Airways Head of Inflight Product “Virtual reality has the power to revolutionize in-flight entertainment, and we’re excited to try these new glasses as they should create a unique, and memorable journey for our First customers.”
A spokesperson for the airline further explained why the service is only available to first-class passengers; “We are currently evaluating the use of virtual reality as another form of inflight entertainment. During this trial stage, we are keeping our sample sizes small, this lends itself well to our First cabin. As always, we’ll evaluate customer feedback throughout. We hope they will love it.”
Although the Airline is the first UK Airline to roll-out the service, it is however not the first to use it worldwide. Alaska partnered SkyLights to offer in-flight headsets in 2018. Air France, Lufthansa, and Qantas are also offering the virtual reality service.
