Nokia flies Virgin Atlantic on wireless charging

Discovering you have a flat battery on your phone as soon as the plane has landed is never the best way to start a holiday.
A new partnership between Nokia and Virgin Atlantic, which will see wireless charging facilities being installed at the airline’s Heathrow Clubhouse, will allow passengers to charge their phones before their flight, so they’ll be ready to go on arrival.

The exciting news follows hot on the heels of Nokia’s unveiling of their innovative new Windows Phone 8 flagship device, the Lumia 920, which has wireless charging built in.

Another new Nokia smartphone, the Lumia 820, can also be charged wirelessly with the use of a removable and exchangeable shell.

Nokia’s executive vice president of smart devices, Jo Harlow, said:

“Virgin Atlantic is putting passengers first by removing a major anxiety, particularly for business travellers – how to keep their phone charged throughout a long day.”

She added that Nokia hopes to make wireless charging as ubiquitous as WiFi.

The Qi standard

Certainly, the launch of the Lumia 920 and Lumia 820 is a major catalyst to help develop an ecosystem for wireless charging.

Nokia and other industry partners are supporting the Qi wireless charging standard to build and create the infrastructure that will make wireless charging a common and convenient part of our daily lives.

As well as the handsets themselves, Nokia also unveiled several accessories, such as the JBL PowerUp Wireless Charging Speaker and the Fatboy™ Recharge Pillow, which can be used to charge up the handsets wirelessly.

Flying high

Speaking to Conversations in New York just moments after the partnership with Nokia was announced, Sarah McIntyre of Virgin Atlantic said:

“A lot of our travellers come into the Clubhouse, they’ve got a couple of hours and they want to do some email work, they want to catch up with friends and family, they are checking their devices and obviously they don’t want to arrive at their destination with a dead phone.”

She described wireless charging as a ‘perfect opportunity’ to enhance the Clubhouse experience for Virgin Atlantic’s customers.

The wireless charging facilities will be in Virgin Atlantic’s London Heathrow Clubhouse later this year. Nokia and Virgin Atlantic also plan to install the facilities at New York’s JFK airport at a later date.