Thinking of buying one of the above mainly so that we can see our new grandson via what I think is called 'Facetime'. Also like to listen to BBC iPlayer Radio.
I know there is about £80 difference in price for the 16G versions so my question is whether to go for the latest more expensive Air 2 or the original Air?
Any opinions would be much appreciated.

The extra £80 is money well spent it has dramatically better CPU and graphics performance over the original Air. It also has double the RAM (2GB) which lets you run a lot more applications and get the most out of iOS. Because of the beefier specs, the Air 2 will be supported with software updates for years to come. It's thinner, lighter and also has a laminated display that is a lot nicer than the spongey display on the previous generation model.

The Air is a still nice device too but it's already showing signs of ageing on the latest versions of iOS. It can get a bit laggy and apps crash more frequently due to it only having 1GB of RAM.

Go for the air 2 .64 mb version the extra apps on the air 2 take up a lot of memory .

When I asked the same question on another forum the advice was to stay away from the 16GB version as the iOS updates were space hungry, as the post above makes reference to this makes the 64GB a better option. With this in mind..

iPad Air 16GB £319
iPad Air 32GB £359
iPad Air 2 16GB £399
iPad Air 2 64GB £479

Discounting the 16GB versions, the price difference becomes £120. I opted for the iPad Air 32GB when faced with the same choice.

Many thanks for all the advice.
I've concluded that the Air 2 is the one to go for with as many gig as the wallet will allow!

Actually, unless you are going to install 100s of apps, 1000s of photos or lots of videos the 16GB version will be fine. My wife has been happily using a 16GB iPad Air since launch and has never come close to filling the memory.

I opted for the iPad Air and I have to say I'm very happy. 32GB memory and it is a wonderful nippy little machine!