On Thursday, , which operates food and beverage locations at North American airports, announced plans to deploy more than 7000 iPads at the three airports over the next year-and-a-half. Travelers will be able to use the tablets to order food at OTG's eateries, check their flight status, surf the Web, and otherwise unwind before boarding their flight.

The result is what OTG CEO Rick Blatstein calls one of the largest free deployments of iPads outside of what Apple does in its own retail stores. "We're really embracing Apple technology," Blatstein told .

OTG says it already has 300 iPads in place at Terminal D in New York's LaGuardia airport. It plans to boost the number of installed tablets to 2000, spread across Terminals C and D. In addition, OTG plans to roll out 2500 iPads at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, and 2500 tablets at Personal International Airport in Toronto. The Minneapolis-St. Paul installation is set for Concourse G, while OTG is putting in iPads at Terminals 1 and 3 of Pearson Airport.

Here's what you can expect, should your travels take you to one of the terminals featuring OTG's iPad installations. The company has set up iPads both in the restaurants it operates and in the hold areas around gates. The iPads are tethered to tables--not unlike what you'd see at an Apple Store--but users can take the tablets out of their stands and hold the device in their hands.

A visual menu lets users order food from OTG's restaurants via the iPads. Food orders are delivered to a traveler's seat in 15 minutes or less so you don't have to fret about missing your flight while waiting for food.