The future of inflight entertainment?

No, but that doesn’t mean it’s not useful

Every year the Airline Passenger Experience Association holds its annual expo to show off the latest and greatest innovations in and around the cabin. Focusing on inflight entertainment (APEX was originally a body set up by the major studios), there’s often a glimpse of the future behind the industry spin.

(While Cabin Pressure is at it, a quick update on the current state of inflight internet connectivity within Australia: all of the big players in satellite and ground wifi were at the expo, and none of them had anything new to say about Australia. For the near future, we’re still in a place where, if you want connectivity, you’ll need to fly an international airline. ) This year, your columnist was invited to judge the award for best achievement in passenger experience – and one of the finalists was Qantas’s virtual reality headsets, based on the Samsung Gear VR devices.