Southwest Airlines now selling iTunes content
Last week saw low-cost airline Jetstar offering in-flight iPads to customers, and now 9to5 Mac is reporting on a Variety magazine story which says that Southwest Airlines is about to start selling media content through Apple's iTunes Store. Called InAirtainment, the program offers fliers a playlist of 20 free songs from new artists to entice customers to shop the iTunes store, and Southwest will be receiving a small percentage of sales like any typical iTunes affiliate.
Speaking with Variety, Southwest spokesperson Whitney Eichinger said that "we want our customers to be able to find all their travel needs at Southwest.com and a big part of traveling is loading up on songs, movies, and all the television you've missed during the week." That should be a big selling point for passengers of the airline, which doesn't provide seat-back entertainment in their fleet of Boeing 737 jets.
We have seen a lot of cross-promotion of late between different airlines and Apple media devices, including the approval of the use of iPads in the cockpit for flight planning and iPad check-ins in Malaysia. Seems Apple's products aren't just showing up in TV and film; they are also taking over the in-flight entertainment world.
[via 9to5 Mac]
