Air Canada today announced the expansion of its award-winning in-flight entertainment with the addition of exclusive Apple TV+ original programming beginning August 1st, 2023. The partnership marks Air Canada's latest investment in the customer experience, adding critically acclaimed original programmes including Ted Lasso, Bad Sisters, Severance, Foundation and many more for its global customers.
"At Air Canada, we know that inflight entertainment is an important part of our customers' travel journey, particularly on long-haul flights. We continually evaluate opportunities to expand our entertainment and introduce exclusive, current content that our customers will love. We look forward to welcoming customers onboard to catch up on their favourite Apple TV+ shows or discover new hits during their flight," said John Moody, managing director of product design at Air Canada. "This new partnership with Apple puts us on track to increase our onboard entertainment content by more than 95% since last year. We look forward to introducing even more entertainment before the end of 2023."
Earlier this year, Air Canada was recognised by Global Traveler as Best Airline for Onboard Entertainment for the fifth consecutive year, and by the Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX) with the Passenger Choice Award for Best Entertainment in North America. With 420+ movies, 1,000+ TV episodes, 130+ music albums, podcasts and more, customers can enjoy the best programming from boarding to landing. All content onboard Air Canada's inflight entertainment equipped aircraft is complimentary for all customers.
Air Canada's partnership with Apple follows the airline's recent collaboration with Mattel which brings more family fun with some of the most popular kids' shorts.
In May, Air Canada and Bell began offering free messaging for all Aeroplan members worldwide on all Wi-Fi equipped aircraft across Air Canada's fleet, including Air Canada Rouge and Air Canada Express flights. Customers can send and receive text-based messages via onboard Wi-Fi using popular messaging apps including Apple's iMessage, Meta's WhatsApp and Messenger, Rakuten's Viber, and Messages by Google.
Last November, Air Canada became the only Canadian carrier to offer live Canadian TV featuring English and French channels, giving customers the ability to cheer on their favourite sports teams by watching global sporting events in real time, as well as live news onboard equipped flights.