United Airlines To Equip Flight Attendants With iPhone 6 Plus

Now that Apple finally has a large smartphone, it’s venturing into places that were previously off-limits.

United Airlines is giving iPhone 6 Plus smartphones to 23,000 flight attendants in a major enterprise rollout of Apple’s big screen devices.

The airline said it will begin distributing the handsets to staff during the second quarter of 2015.

The iPhones will be used for most onboard retail transactions and will also allow workers access to corporate email, intranet and policies and procedures manuals. The airline also plans to replace flight attendants’ printed safety manuals with an electronic version on their iPhones, and provide real-time reporting and improved follow-up on aircraft cabin issues and repairs. In addition, United said it plans to develop “customer-focused” tools for the device, but didn’t detail what they will entail.

The deployment of the iPhone 6 Plus for United crew builds on the airline’s deployment of iPads to pilots which began in 2011, in a move toward creating paperless aircraft and flight decks. More recently, United renewed the iPad pilot programme with the deployment of iPad Air 2 tablets.

United isn’t the first American carrier to use giant phones in the air, but its iPhone plans could still do a lot to make your next flight go smoothly.

Source: CNET