In-flight TV Systems
Since 2005, a number of (but certainly not all) the New Series episodes of Doctor Who have been available on the in-flight entertainment systems of various airlines flying international and domestic routes, but only a handful of Classic series stories are known to have been offered as on-demand viewing at cruising altitude.
Airlines usually acquire the rights to screen episodes for a limited period of time, usually one year. Often an airline would only have a selection of episodes from each series, rather than all the episodes - for example, in 2011, Air New Zealand had the Matt Smith episode The Impossible Astronaut, but did not also have Day of the Moon!
Stories In-Flight
The Paul McGann TV Movie was the first edition of Doctor Who to be licenced for showing by airlines, with only two carriers known to have had it on their flights (presumably played throughout the aircraft on the main cabin screens (as the only feature film?) rather than as part of a wider selection of viewing options, since "back of seat" personal TV screens were not a common feature on board many aircraft in the late 1990s.
- British Airways; BA had the rights to show the movie 99 times between July and September 1996.
- Singapore Airlines
In 2014, two airlines are known to have offered all of season 12 - Tom Baker's first year as the Doctor:
- Air Canada, on both domestic and international routes
- Cathay Pacific
It is likely that other airlines also had these episodes, especially if the BBC had sold that season as a special "package" for playing on aircraft.
- Doctor Who on Cathay Pacific 2014
- Archived sample of a generic TV menu for Air Canada (no Doctor Who)
In early 2016, some Sylvester McCoy episodes were available on at least one international carrier:
