Smart airlines are turning to iPads instead of expensive seat-back in-flight entertainment

When French airline OpenSkies wanted to upgrade entertainment options on the small fleet of Boeing 757s it flies between Paris and New York, it decided against wiring its aircraft with a traditional seat-back video system.

Instead, it bought nearly 500 Apple Inc. AAPL +0.05% iPads and preloaded them with an array of video to hand out to passengers on board.

Rather than the up to $3 million per airplane that typical in-flight entertainment systems can cost to install, according to industry executives, the airline says it spent about $250,000 per plane for its iPad-based system, which the premium-class-only airline lends out free to all of its passengers.