Southwest Airlines Turns To iTunes For InAirtainment

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Southwest Airlines, of Kevin Smith fame, has partnered with Apple to create an in-flight entertainment download store called InAirtainment. Users would connect to the Internet via in-flight Wi-Fi, then download music, movies, and TV shows. Southwest gets a small percentage of the fee.

It’s hardly the first in-flight entertainment system out there—how long has JetBlue had DirecTV?—but it’s a pretty big deal for Southwest, which has made its name as being a pretty no-frills airline. A sort of, We’ll get you from point A to point B, but that’s about it.

The InAirtainment service is actually run by a company called Row 44. Compare this to other in-flight entertainment serves like Virgin which use Gogo.

I suppose it would be silly to suggest that you load up your portable media player or laptop with a couple of songs before heading to the airport? Or how about a Kindle or Nook or other e-reader?