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Should More Airlines Let You Make In-Flight Cell Phone Calls?

Should more airlines let you make cell phone calls? Perhaps a more important question is “do you want your seat mate to spend the entire flight to Vegas on the phone with their bff?”

Nielsen recently surveyed 8,000 airline passengers in 10 key travel markets around the world and found that around half of Americans say “Yeah, as long as I can make calls too.”

For the rest of the world, the desire to stay connected even while you’re in the air seems to be split along country lines. A little more than half of French, German, Japanese, Swedish and British passengers surveyed said that they’re happy not being able to use their phones while on a plane.

An overwhelming 88% of Indian and 82% of Chinese passengers said that staying connected during a flight is not only important to them, but they’d be willing to pay more for the privilege.

For those who haven’t been keeping up to date with airline regulations, cell phone use is no longer considered dangerous. That leaves the argument for and against the use of cell phones down to noise pollution. Should you allow passengers to make important or emergency phone calls in flight and run the risk of spending a three hour flight next to a Chatty Cathy?

The world still seems largely divided. In the mean time, you can check here to see which airlines allow cell phone use and which do not.

 

A few other findings by the Nielsen survey:

  • The British are the most likely to be bothered about waiting in line at the airport check-in; Swedes are the most chilled
  • Having a range of inflight films, music and audio-books on offer matters most to customers from the U.S., India and the U.A.E.
  • Japanese flyers are the least keen on hearing updates from the pilot, whereas people from India and South Africa lap up progress reports
  • Fast, free Internet access is globally desirable but especially popular in China, South Africa and the U.S.

 

To read more on the topic, head to Bloomberg.

H/T View From the Wing

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20 Comments
G
Gandoon July 27, 2018

I may go against the stream here, but I really don't mind. I am European and I have no major issue with people talking on phones on busses or trains here, so I am certain I wouldn't mind it on an airplane either. For those of you not from this end of the world and are unfamiliar with our air services, it is worth remembering that most of the flights within Europe are shorter than 3h, most below 2h in the air, so the inability to make a phone call during airtime is largely a non-issue. Nevertheless, the amount of actual talking on phones on public transport does not strike me as a huge thing... people tend to do a lot more telegraphy these days (SMS/iMessage/Whatsapp/Wechat/[insert application of choice here]) than actual voice calls anyway, which is far less intrusive. A well functioning network connectivity (preferably complimentary) is far more likely to keep the chattier people docile since they can be absorbed into their devices. E.g. Norwegian offers in-air network on many of their flights and that is quite an added value (when it works). That type of service would actually be a selling point for me. What is more disturbing to me is the occasional inconsiderate that puts on a video or music without headphones, but that would probably be less of an issue on a flight due to the already noisy environment (they may be less likely to try it if they can't hear what is happening on the screen).

2
2stepbay July 24, 2018

I have no problem with cell phone use on a plane as long as users have duct tape over their mouth. ;)

H
hervepa July 22, 2018

Just NO!!!!!!! And forget the cost-prohibitive! Then we'll just have the incredibly annoying business poobahs conversations. If peoplecan't stay out of touch for a few hours, then don't fly!

M
Mort July 20, 2018

BMGRAHAM wrote: "When planes are at the gate and when planes land people use phones at all and I’ve never heard anyone complain about it. It’s a non-issue." I disagree completely. It drives me nuts.

K
kkua July 19, 2018

Please make it cost prohibitive enough so people will reserve it only for emergencies.