Southwest Airlines Lets Passengers Borrow iPads During Certain Flights

Forgot to bring an iPad on your trip? Southwest Airlines will let you borrow one on certain flights.

Through the "iPad2 Lending Program," passengers will be able to borrow the device between three of the airline's busiest airports, Chicago Midway, Denver and Oakland. Customers can rent an iPad from one of the "Watch TV on the Fly" libraries in a Southwest terminal at one of these designated airports. They can then return the iPad at the library when they arrive at one of the other airports that are participating in the program, USA Today reports.

The airports that run the program are among the busiest for Southwest. Chicago Midway has the most daily departures, making it the busiest, while Denver ranked fifth and Oakland ranked 10th.

This program is part of a promotion that the airline if offering in conjunction with satellite TV partner Dish network. Along with the promotion, Southwest passengers can watch free TV on their personal devices on a Wi-Fi-enabled plan. The "TV Flies Free" provides customers with 14 live channels and up to 75 on-demand shows through satellite TV provider Dish network on more than 425 Wi-Fi-equipped planes. The service, which is available on 75% of the fleet, used to cost $5. The content can be streamed to iPhones, iPads, iPod touches and other Wi-Fi devices.

Dish Brand employees will be available at each library to help passengers. Customers must sign out the iPads, but they don't have to become Dish customers. The promotion isn't likely to go beyond the three main airports.

"Providing the 'TV on the Fly' libraries is a great way for us to give as many Southwest customers the opportunity to experience DISH's "TV Flies Free" promotion on Southwest," Dish told Today in the Sky. "At the moment we are not looking to expand the iPad lending to other airports however, customers can still try this experience on a number of their own devices including, Apple and Android phones and tablets as well as laptops."