Twelve South AirFly Pro 2 – use your AirPods with the airplane screen
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You board a ten-hour flight with your expensive noise-cancelling earbuds. You pick a movie. Then the seat screen asks for a headphone jack, and you’re handed a pair of wired airline earphones that sound like a tin can on a string.
The Twelve South AirFly Pro 2 fixes exactly that. It’s a small Bluetooth adapter that plugs into any 3.5mm headphone jack and sends the sound to your AirPods or any other wireless headphones. It’s one of those things you only need a few times a year, and then you really need it.
What is the AirFly Pro 2?
Twelve South is an accessory maker that got its start in Apple Stores in 2009. The AirFly line has been around for years, and the Pro 2 is the 2025 update. It launched in March 2025 at 59.99 dollars.
It’s a small pill-shaped thing with a short cable and a headphone plug on the end. Plug it into the airplane armrest or a gym treadmill, pair your headphones, done.
How does it work?
The AirFly Pro 2 has two modes, and you switch between them with a slider:
- Transmit mode takes sound from a headphone jack and sends it over Bluetooth to up to two pairs of headphones at once. You and your travel buddy can watch the same movie.
- Receive mode works the other way around. Plug it into the AUX input of an old car stereo or a speaker, and stream music to it from your phone.
According to Twelve South, this is what’s new compared with the original AirFly Pro:
- Bluetooth 5.3, plus aptX HD, aptX Adaptive, aptX Low Latency, AAC and SBC
- Separate “Pair 1” and “Pair 2” buttons, so adding a second pair of headphones is easy
- Volume buttons on the device itself
- Battery life up from 16 to more than 25 hours
It charges over USB-C in about 2 hours and weighs 16.5 grams.
What I like / What could be better
What I like:
- It solves a very specific, very annoying problem, and it fits in a coat pocket.
- Two people can share one screen without sharing one pair of earbuds. Hygienic and romantic.
- 25+ hours means one charge covers a long-haul flight and the way back.
What could be better:
- Matthew Arcari at The AU Review gave it four out of five stars, but found the battery indicator vague. It blinks, but doesn’t tell you much about how much is left.
- The same review calls the changes over the first Pro fairly small. If you already own an AirFly Pro, I’d keep it.
- Some planes use the old two-prong jack. The regular box doesn’t include an adapter for that. The Deluxe version adds one, plus a travel bag.
- All that aptX talk is nice, but AirPods don’t support aptX. With AirPods, you won’t hear the full benefit of the fancier codecs.
Who is the AirFly Pro 2 for?
Frequent flyers, obviously. But also gym rats who want the treadmill TV in their own earbuds, gamers with a console that doesn’t do Bluetooth headphones, and anyone driving a car from before the Bluetooth era. It’s also a solid gift for the traveler who has everything. Add a flat water bottle for their laptop bag and they’re set.
Skip it if you never fly and your car already has Bluetooth. If you want to talk to people on the other end of the trip, the Timekettle X1 interpreter hub is the more useful travel gadget. Need better headphones to go with it? The Sennheiser Momentum 4 is a great long-haul pair.
Where can I buy the AirFly Pro 2?
Twelve South sells it on its own site and on Amazon in several colors. On Amazon it’s about 48 to 60 bucks at the time of writing (October 2026), depending on the color.
Your earbuds, the airplane movie and no tin can on a string.