For EasyJet, tablets running on Windows 8 - such as Microsoft Surface Pro - would be preferable to Apple's iPad because they're more compatible with the rest of the office ecosystem.
That's according to CIO Trevor Didcock who made the comments to Computing at the Air Transport IT Summit in Brussels.
"With tablets, everyone was initially saying you must use an iPad, because it was far the most advanced tablet. But Windows 8 devices are good now. In fact my preference would be to standardise on a Windows 8 device rather than an iPad," he said.
While EasyJet doesn't have any plans to provide tablets to all staff at the moment, Didcock said there is a possibility this will change in the future.
The airline does provide staff with smartphones in the form of BlackBerrys. However, they are the old-style BlackBerry smartphones with a keyboard, not the new generation launched earlier this year which run on BlackBerry 10.
"BlackBerrys are a personal productivity tool. We chose BlackBerry when the other devices didn't have as strong security," said Didcock, adding that he saw no urgent reason to upgrade as staff are happy using what they are familiar with.
"Now I guess we could standardise and move away from BlackBerry, but people like BlackBerrys. A lot of people who come into EasyJet from other industries have been used to operating on BlackBerry. So as a personal productivity device BlackBerry's been fine," he said.
