I think that's a bad decision on N=1 samples. I find international Emirates flights to be one of the most modern and comfortable ones. I mean, you even get power sockets in economy most of the time, which is still pretty rare.
Connectors like these are pretty much a standard for whatever crazy reason as well. (the third hole seems to provide some power, since their noise-cancelling version in business uses it)
I've yet to buy a set of noise-cancelling headphones that didn't come with an adapter for these, which seems like a better option. You'll have a hard time finding airlines that use a standard 3.5mm jack.
Neither Boeing or Airbus specify trivia such as headphone connectors. They provide their airline customers with a list of seat options from approved suppliers and the airline chooses based on their criteria.
A company local to me, Thompson, manufactures seats and competes for customers through both big OEMs.
You're probably right - I just noticed they were different on say, Air Canada vs Qantas and assumed the aircraft type was the differentiation. If I was travelling again I'd just buy adaptors from AliBaba.
Pay for headphones? What airline is that? I've flown on a lot and I've never had to pay for them.
I've always assumed they used the weird connectors to prevent people from taking the headphones with them (since they can't easily be connected to anything except an airline entertainment system)
I've heard that also historically one of the big reasons for the odd jack was to prevent theft (back when headphones were relatively more expensive and all airline headphones were designed for reuse...)
Emirates gives you headphones for free (standard in economy, noise-cancelling in business), it's not like they make money on this. I don't think Boeing and Airbus care about the headphone sales either.
