A program for the Apple
iPhone developed by
British Airways to allow people to check flight departures and
arrivals, could be rolled out to other mobile devices.
"In principle we could roll it out to other phones. There's
nothing formal yet but I suspect there's going to be a lot of
interest. I expect a lot of people will follow us but it was
important to be the first," said Paul Coby, CIO of British
Airways.
"The
arrivals and departures schedule is one piece of information
that we have made available and we are looking at what the
possibilities are," he said.
IT staff at the airline developed the application using the
Apple developer's kit.
Coby said staff took the arrivals and departures fragment of the
website and re-purposed it for the iPhone. The 3G architecture on
the phone interrogates the airline's operational databases, and
provides the phone with the information.
Coby said BA had chosen the
iPhone because of its
image, "We all know from what's happening around us that it's
probably the coolest thing you can buy at the moment in technology.
We think it fits very well with our brand. We want to be innovators
in the air and online as well."