United Airlines will equip its more than 23,000 mainline flight attendants with Apple’s new iPhone 6 Plus smartphone starting in the second quarter of next year, the airline announced today.
The phone will give flight attendants access to company email and manuals, and provide them with a way to handle in-flight purchases. In addition, United says that it plans to replace the attendants’ printed safety manuals with a digital version on their iPhones, and will eventually use the devices as a conduit to track repair status and cabin issues in real time.
In addition to the iPhone program, United also announced that it has renewed its iPad program for pilots, and will outfit cockpit crews with Apple’s new iPad Air 2 tablet.
Today’s news isn’t a great sign for Microsoft, which is trying to position its Surface line of tablets as the go-to devices for aviation.
