By Rich Tomaselli
Beginning next week, passengers on JetBlue Airways might not need to take their wallets out of their pockets to pay for food or drink as long as they have an Apple product.
New York-based JetBlue has become the first airline to strike a deal with Apple to use its Apple Pay services on-board flights, according to USA Today. It will debut the service on select cross-country flights from New York to Los Angeles and San Francisco, and then gradually roll it out in the spring.
JetBlue flight attendants will be equipped with special iPad minis to accept the payment. The iPads will still be able to accept regular credit and debit card payments on-board as well.
Apple Pay, developed by Apple Inc. for use in its iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and the new Apple Watch, is a digital wallet. The concept uses Near Field Communication (NFC) technology to securely record a payment.
According to Webopedia, those who own Apple devices can add a credit or debit card to the device as payment. Apple Pay can then be used by holding the device near a contactless POS (point of sale) transaction processor – such as an iPad mini.
The Federal Communications Commission has already approved the iPad mini for use to accept payment from Apple Pay.
“The sky is definitely not the limit when it comes to mobile payments with Apple Pay,” Marty St. George, a senior vice president at JetBlue, told USA Today.
“Mobile devices are an obvious choice for payment in the future,” Jay Sorensen, president of aviation consultant IdeaWorksCompany in Shorewood, Wisc., told Crain’s New York Business. “This will be the way of the world at some point.”
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