AQA 63336 becomes the world first answering service available on planes

Mobile answering service AQA 63336 to be available on Virgin Atlantic aircraft later this month

9 August 2006

Virgin Atlantic Airways today announced that it is launching a new inflight entertainment service onboard that enables passengers to get any question answered during their flight.

AQA, which stands for Any Question Answered, is a text service whereby any question can be sent to 63336 in the UK, or 57275 in Ireland, and the answer is texted directly back to the phone. In the first deal of this kind, Virgin Atlantic will be enabling the service onboard through the in–flight entertainment system. Passengers can send a question via their seat–back TV screens and receive an answer to their seats within minutes.

Virgin Atlantic commented:

"We thought it would be fun to offer a service that is the perfect solution to that niggling question you don't always know the answer to. It is a great way to ask for a recommended bar in New York, what's the best way to get over jet–lag, or what's the best way to chat up the cabin crew!"

"Virgin Atlantic always tries to ensure passengers have plenty to keep them entertained and occupied during their flight with us, from the best blockbuster films to seat–back sudoku and an onboard meditation programme – the AQA text service complements these perfectly."

Paul Cockerton, Marketing Director from IssueBits, the provider of the AQA service commented:

"We're delighted to partner with Virgin Atlantic to provide the world's first airborne text question answering service. We already have thousands of customers who use AQA for advice, information and entertainment whilst abroad, now they don't even have to wait until their land planes to find out the latest restaurants, bars or chat up lines in the local language."

The AQA service will be rolled out across the Virgin Atlantic fleet of aircraft from later this month. All Virgin Atlantic aircraft are fitted with personal seat back TV's for every passenger. V:Port, the latest in in–flight entertainment, has over 500 hours of Video and Audio on demand which allows passengers to stop, start, fast forward and rewind all the action.

Any Question Answered (AQA) is a privately owned limited company based in London and has over 500 researchers working from home answering questions 24 hours a day. AQA has answered over three million questions since its launch on 22nd April 2004. The first question asked was 'What's the population of London?'.

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