The Tinder of the sky takes off! New app 'MileHi' will connect plane passengers (and there's even a 'direct message' option)

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Businessman Richard Lloyd insists business use is MileHi's primary purpose

Frisky air travellers seeking an illicit assignation in the sky are being encouraged in their efforts by a new smart-phone app with the teasing title ‘MileHi’.

Although ostensibly marketed as a means of putting fellow travellers together ahead of their journey to ‘connect, message and fly’, its backers do not shrink from the ‘nudge nudge, wink wink’ innuendo of how it might really be used by passengers on the pull. 

Businessman Richard Lloyd who founded the new ‘MileHi’ app which launched this week doesn’t rule out such amorous encounters but insists it is not its prime purpose. 

However, it has already been dubbed ‘the Tinder of the sky’ because the online matchmaking app connects people in the vicinity and allows participants to accept or reject prospective dates with a single ‘swipe’ according to whether they consider them hot or not.

The MileHi twist is that prospective travelling companions can decide before they fly whether they want to switch to sit next to each other before they fly. Each use gives their occupation - from sales executive to housewife, location and perhaps significantly their ‘marital status.’ 

Entrepreneur Mr Lloyd, 47, who is married and runs a chain of estate agents in Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire as well as a property headhunting firm, says he got the idea while returning from holiday in Marseilles as he watched other passengers and wondered how he could put them in contact with one another.

Mr Lloyd said he met his own wife, a model, at Heathrow Airport when he chatted to her in the departure lounge in 1995.

He said: ‘This is a business tool aimed at making life easier for those wanting to share a cab perhaps into a city or find out who on the flight is going to the same conference as you ‘But I’m sure there will be some who find it perfect for networking in a social way, all with the best intentions of course. MileHi by name but very much saying hi by nature.’

He said the MileHi app - which works on both iPhone and Android smartphone platforms – will transform air travel by allowing passengers travelling on the same flight to ‘engage and communicate ahead of their journey.’

‘The new MileHi application is set to revolutionise the way that we travel by allowing users to connect and message fellow passengers who are travelling on the same flight ahead of their journey, he added. 

‘Every flight you take will be filled with potential future business contacts and friends.

‘The possibilities opened up by this new platform will appeal to all passengers travelling whether it is for pleasure or business.'

The app can show the user who is travelling on the same flight out of a particular airport

Benefits of signing up include being able to share a taxi with people, as well as discuss similar interests

Travellers will be able to 'engage with other users’ on the same flight at any time before departure, he says. This will create 'opportunities to make new friends and travel companions before they have even boarded the aircraft.'

And if you are really getting along well: 'With MileHi private direct messaging you could even ensure that you are seated together to then continue discussions on board.' 

He says the social app is ‘perfect for those who happen to be holidaying at the same destination or city’. Mr Lloyd notes: ‘For example, users could arrange to share a taxi from the arrival airport, exchange tips and ideas on what to visit and where to explore.'

Mr Lloyd said: 'This application has been designed from the ground up to allow an easy and convenient way for passengers to connect prior to travel, whether travelling with family, friends or alone.'

Once air passengers have signed up to the 'MileHi' app club and created their own profile, they can enter the details of any flight. Mr Lloyd says: 'Once registered on a flight you can send a message to all the other MileHi users who will be travelling on that flight and even send direct private messages to individuals.'

The app will show the occupation of users, as well as their marital status - hence why some may dub it the 'Tinder of the sky'

The application also has a convenient 'left and right swipe' option that enables users to see who is travelling to the same destination on the same flight number the day before or the day after their own flight. Left is the day before, right is the day after.

This feature is particularly useful if travellers want to engage with a greater number of people going to the same destination, he says. 

The so-called 'Mile High Club' is a long standing reference to passengers who become overly amorous during a flight – usually after some of the mood-enhancing in-flight alcoholic beverages - and consummate their new found friendship under a blanket or squashed in the tiny aeroplane toilet at around 35,000ft somewhere over the Atlantic ocean. 

While major airlines do not encourage such behaviour, they do by and large seek to resolve it quietly and diplomatically, However on some rare occasions police have been called when matters got seriously out of hand.

Virgin Atlantic said it was relaxed about the new MileHi app. A spokeswoman said: 'Networking in the sky isn't necessarily new as many business meetings have taken place at our Upper Class bar. It's the perfect place to for our customers to meet their fellow passengers.'

Users can log in with their Facebook account or choose to set a profile up separately