Air passengers seek call-free zones

Mobile Internet, The, May, 2005

Business travelers may not be quite as desperate to stay in touch while flying as airlines imagine. A survey in the latest National Business Travel Monitor of those based in the US found that only 23 percent thought mobile-phone calls should be allowed on board, while more than two-thirds said that, if mobiles were permitted, callers should be confined to a designated section of the aircraft. Following the recent report from Scandinavian Airlines that passengers were using laptops to make cheap calls via its in-flight Internet access system, the survey may give carriers pause for thought. However, the silent majority of passengers may be encouraged to hear that, while the proportion of travelers keen to access the Web on aircraft has risen from 27 percent in last year's equivalent survey, it is still only 36 percent.

The survey also found that 42 percent expected to make more trips in the coming year, while 24 percent anticipated making fewer. But travelers have been cutting back on longer stays of five nights or more and making fewer international trips. Perhaps deterred by the weak dollar, 11 percent said they had traveled abroad in the past year, compared with 13 percent last time, and the average number of trips fell from 7.1 to 3.1.