Already home to one of the biggest airport shopping malls in the country (not to mention being smack dab next door to the Mall of America), the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport (MSP) is about to get a few thousand more reasons to fly through. The airport is remodeling Concourse G, a concourse exclusively used by Delta Airlines through 2015, and has partnered with OTG Management to install about 2,500 iPads for free public use in the concourse, according to the Saint Paul Pioneer Press. All sessions are done in a secure browser, with user credentials wiped after each session.
In addition to offering free usage of iPads while in the Concourse, OTG Management and the MSP Airport are considering an iPad rental program that will allow passengers to rent iPads loaded with music, movies, games, and traveler-selected applications from the airport to use in-flight. Customers would return the iPads to MSP using a provided return package with shipping label. You’ll likely have to put a credit card on file so that you may be charged should you choose to run away with Apple’s industry-leading tablet.
MSP is not the first airport to offer iPads for public use; New York’s LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy Airports each have a smaller offering already installed through OTG Management, who plans on expanding the number of iPads offered at the LaGuardia Airport in coming months. Additionally, OTG Management is in talks with Toronto’s Pearson International Airport to bring iPads north of the border. Once completed, over 7,000 iPads will be available between the four airports.
The move is all a part of OTG Management’s plan to deploy tens of thousands of iPads in Airports around the world. We’re very clearly on the path towards bringing our airports into the 21st century, and I for one can’t wait to check out the new Concourse G at my hometown MSP Airport.
[via Pioneer Press; Image from OTG Management]