Irish Airline Aims to Add In-Flight Porno For Passengers

Irish airline Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary is looking to make flying with his company just a little more enjoyable. To that end, he’s looking to provide a smartphone and tablet app for passengers that would grant them access to entertainment options, including some controversial additions like video games and gambling. Also porn. Did we mention the porn? He wants to charge passengers for watching pornography on his planes.

Of course, there are some major obstacles. First, he’ll have to overcome potential backlash from people who are understandably upset with the idea of  people watching pornography in such proximety to children, or themselves. To his critics, the Daily Mail quotes O’Leary as saying:

“I’m not talking about having it on screens on the back of seats for everyone to see. It would be on handheld devices. […] Hotels around the world have it, so why wouldn’t we?”

Why indeed?

Besides the ick-factor of his plan, there are also some technical issues to overcome. Namely, finding a way to maintain a strong broadband connection with the plane while in flight. After all, if you have a lot of people streaming steamy content, it’s going to take a lot of bandwidth. Also, it’s probably a fair assumption that the kind of person who would watch pornography on a plane probably already has pornography loaded onto his or her (but let’s be honest, “his”) mobile device. So, a certain premium quality to the content will likely be necessary.

Now, while everyone has a right to watch whatever they want, doing so in an enclosed space miles above the ground is going to be problematic. You may be fine with going to a porno theater, but that doesn’t really make it fair for you to drag everyone else to one as well. If you need more proof that this is a half-baked scheme, here’s the Daily Mail’s commentary on some of O’Leary’s other plans to monetize the airline:

Last month he said he was looking at removing all but one toilet from his planes to put in extra seats. While he has previously proposed charging passengers for using the toilet in-flight.

(Daily Mail via Slashdot, image via Katy Pearce)

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