Twelve South AirFly Pro 2 Bluetooth Adapter

Airplane entertainment systems have spent years offering a tiny headphone socket as though wireless headphones never happened. The result is a familiar bit of modern travel theatre: perfectly good earbuds, a perfectly functional film, and a wire dangling from the seat that appears to have survived several previous passengers’ snacks. We think the Twelve South AirFly Pro 2 earns its place by ending that nonsense with a very small intermediary.

This Bluetooth adapter plugs into a standard headphone jack and transmits its audio to wireless headphones. That makes it useful on flights, at gym equipment, with gaming devices and at TVs that still provide a 3.5 mm output. More interestingly, it can pair two sets of Bluetooth headphones to one source, which makes shared listening possible without one person pretending they can hear through somebody else’s earbud.

The Pro 2 is not limited to sending audio outward. Its receive mode takes Bluetooth audio and outputs it to wired speakers or an AUX-IN port. That gives an older speaker, car stereo or boat setup a route into the wireless present, without forcing an otherwise decent bit of kit into a drawer marked “cables, mysterious.”

We see this as an unusually sensible travel accessory with a useful domestic afterlife. It supports all Bluetooth wireless headphone brands according to Twelve South, recharges by USB-C, and lists more than 25 hours of battery life. The catch is refreshingly literal: it needs a standard headphone jack. No jack, no tidy little audio miracle.