Watching movies on a long haul flight is old hat by now – although there are still some budget airlines that do not come with such service – simply because you pay a whole lot less in the first place, which means that such perks too, would not be available. Well, budget airline Ryanair intends to test movie and TV show streaming over to tablets and smartphones of passengers during a flight.
Ryanair has gained a somewhat unsavory reputation of the fees that it charges when it comes to add-on services, and claims that such a facility could be provided – for free, which is a welcome change. Chief technology officer John Hurley claims that profit would be achieved through the inclusion of advertisements instead, and businesses would be the ones paying for those ads depending on the cities that the flight is headed toward
Trials for such in-flight movie streaming to passengers’ smartphones and tablets are tipped to begin later this summer, although as to the exact timeframe that Ryanair has set for itself to turn this into a permanent “feature” or service remains to be seen. What do you think of this business idea – will passengers bite, or would they prefer to simply download what they would like to watch earlier on to their respective mobile devices prior to the flight?