British Air offers more listening choices

Not all British Airways business passengers are ''all business

and no pleasure,'' according to the latest research into

onboard travel needs.

British Airways director of marketing, Martin George, said

customer research showed that passengers wanted ways to relax

and take a welcome break from their demanding work schedules

when on long haul flights.

In the study that sampled 1,500 passengers who traveled in first

flass, Club World and World Traveler, it was revealed that listening

to the radio was one of the preferred activities for a majority of

people on long haul flights.

Business passengers, who stated that they felt insulated from

work because they couldnt be contacted and found that traveling

on British Airways provided the space to relax and recharge their

batteries, wanted spoken word channels which provided them with

arts and literature features, issues and debates.

In response, British Airways, in conjunction with the UKs leading

online store Amazon.co.uk, today announced a new inflight arts

program aimed specifically at the business traveler.

The new radio channel Words is available to all customers

traveling on British Airways flights, providing upbeat, informative

features focused on arts, science, business and current affairs.

Words is presented by Melvyn Bragg, respected author,

broadcaster and cultural commentator.

Each two-hour program will contain a variety of interviews, book

extracts and discussions from the world of the arts, science,

business and current affairs.

Martin George said: Words is yet another way British Airways

has shown its commitment to innovative inflight programming,

specifically designed for passengers wanting high-quality,

thought-provoking entertainment.

Articles from the program will also appear on a special page on

Amazon.co.uk. Visitors to the page will be able to buy any of the

books or CDs that are featured in the program from

Amazon.co.uks selection of 1.5 million book titles and 120,000

CD albums.

Colleen Byrum, managing director of Amazon.co.uk commented:

As a company renowned for providing a huge selection of books

and music, Amazon.co.uk is pleased to be sponsoring a program

with such a great line up of features and a well-respected

presenter. Amazon.co.uk are also delighted to be joining forces

with the worlds favorite airline.

The first program includes an interview with the fashion

photographer Juergen Teller and Martin Jarvis reads an extract

from the Michael Frayns Booker prize nominated novel, Headlong.

The program will also include an in-depth interview with Martha

Fiennes, the director of the new film Onegin starring her brother

Ralph.

Club World customers also have the opportunity to sample up to

18 channels of video, 12 channels of audio and award-winning

magazine High Life.