Two airlines are taking passengers to the edge with their in-flight movie offerings.

Virgin Atlantic is introducing an emotional health warning on films that have potential to be tearjerkers. ‘Water for Elephants’ and ‘Just Go With It!’ will be the first films to carry the new warning sign that will flash up before the start of the movies to advise passengers to have tissues at the ready and to press the call button for a shoulder to cry on.

In a recent survey Virgin Atlantic found over half of respondents (55%) agreed their emotions become heightened when on a flight and 41% of men surveyed said they hid under blankets to hide their tears. Meanwhile women said they were most likely to hide their tears by pretending they had something in their eye.

(Unfortunately the survey logged where the respondents come from, so we also know that wimps of Wolverhampton are the most emotionally sensitive with 70% of them saying their emotions heighten on a flight compared to only 26% of granite-hearts from Gloucester. And when it comes to actually sobbing at 30,000ft, again the Wolves wimps triumphed with almost a quarter of them admitting they had cried whilst watching a movie on board, while absolutely no tears were shed by the 'get a grip' folk from Aberystwyth or Wrexham.)

Would they be even harder if they flew with Qantas?

Possibly.

One of the video-on-demand movies Qantas currently offers on its long-haul flights is a 50-min French film 'The Female Orgasm Explained', which includes naked scenes and comes with a Mature Audiences Only warning.

Qantas say that unlike the general box-office hits shown on its mainstream channels, this movie is offered on their 'The Edge' channel which is designed to push the boundaries a little with unusual programme content from all genres. Cabin crew are able to block content to individual seats so parents can censor their children's viewing simply by asking.