The deprecated No Smoking Signs on aircraft may soon be replaced by “No Mobile Signs” on some planes next year, Reuters reports. This is not a new idea. Some planes have replaced these signs with “It is Now Safe to Use Portable Electronics” messages. But this is a small portion of the overall aircraft, despite refits.
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That the crew should be able to disable the cellular service or at least voice functioning of it during designated quiet times is anticipated to be a feature of the system. The company developing the technology, OnAir, is a venture between Airbus and a company called Sita.
USA Today’s Today in the Sky blog, commented here on the Reuters article, referencing comments he solicited in May from various U.S. carriers. Most were reluctant to allow cellular phone calls onboard.
The only apparent full endorsement of allowing unrestricted voice calling onboard was Michael O’Leary, of Irish discount airline, Ryanair, when asked if in-flight calls would annoy passengers, “Why should I care if it is generating money?” He went on to comment he thought few people would make such calls. We are not as optimistic.
