United Airlines details 6 big inflight entertainment updates, including all-new Control Tower map

Introducing Control Tower view

I'm a frequent United flyer, so imagine my surprise last week when I stumbled upon a new inflight map feature: Control Tower view.

This view allows you to pull up a map of the airfield that's overlaid with all the aircraft around you. Clicking on each little plane brings up its call sign and operating airline. Going forward, the pilot won't need to tell you that you're No. 25 for departure — you'll be able to see that clearly on your inflight monitor.

Control Tower view is a new feature that United is testing, Green said. It's enabled in partnership with the FlightPath3D product that United licenses from a company called Betria Interactive.

"We thought it'd be really cool that customers could see where they are on the airfield. We already have pretty good quality zoom-level maps, like down to kind of street-level view, and we said, well, it'd be great to have that airfield terminal level where you could actually see where you're at. Cool for aviation geeks, watching the little planes move around, but also I think it's really helpful for customers," Green added.

The Control Tower view is powered by the flight deck's navigation systems and a live feed of planes from FlightAware.

Green expects this feature to be a hit with flyers, especially since the moving map is the most watched piece of content on United planes, he told TPG. There's no timeline on when Control Tower view might expand to other planes, but if you're flying United soon, take a look at the moving map and see if you have the option to enable it.