A recent survey has found that the introduction of in-flight mobile phone use would be unpopular with business travellers.
The survey, conducted by Barclaycard Business, questioned more than 4,000 businessmen and found that six out of ten would not want in-flight mobile technology introduced.
More women than men were against such a system (62 per cent as opposed to 57 per cent), and more chief executives were in favour of in-flight calling than company managers (43 per cent as opposed to 31 per cent).
Barclaycard Business’ Denise Leleux said the results suggest that “businesspeople want to preserve flights as a time to work or relax without fear of being interrupted, overheard, or having to listen to the person next to them”.
This time last year Ryanair was among the airlines to announce that it was planning to offer an in-flight mobile phone service to its passengers. Speaking about the possible disturbance that it may cause, airline chief executive Michael O’Leary said that the service could soon be removed if passengers didn’t like it.
Bmi, SAS and Air France have also announced they plan to run trials to test the popularity of an in-flight service.
