Up to date satellite information on your seatback screen

The European Space Agency has a number of satellites circling in the globe’s atmosphere, and now it’s going to share the images with you. Via Air France, that is. On all of Air France’s 777 flights, passengers will be able to tune into a channel on the in-flight entertainment system and check out what’s passing them by on the earth as they speed overhead. The airline touts itself as the first air carrier in the world to offer such a service.

Ai France receives the information form CD-ROMs provided by the ESA; meaning that the images you see onboard are not in real-time. Some images are a few days old, some over a year. The images change when the aircraft’s Geovision senses the plane is passing high above a point of interest.

The only flights offering this service as of now are Air France flights from Paris to Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai and Singapore, with Tokyo most likely to be the next to follow. Patrick Roux, vice president of marketing for Air France beams, “It is an example of the innovative initiatives that Air France aims to develop for our passengers. We are looking forward to extending this offer to other destinations.”

www.airfrance.com